Buffalo Safety-Damar Hamlin is awake and **Bills at Bengals** Game has been Canceled (3 Viewers)

[IvanKaramazov]

can’t believe the talk here of a potential forfeit. On what grounds? That seems so ridiculous to me

The fact that we're even having to have this conversation is why we should move heaven and earth to play through games even when there's a serious injury. Now we're sitting here in Week 17.5 trying to figure out whether to call this game a forfeit, whether to force both teams to play an extra game on short rest right before the playoffs, or some other ridiculous alternative. Everybody was too busy dunking on Skip Bayless last night to think five minutes ahead.

Edit: This is not to say that postponing the game was the wrong decision. Just that if you supported the decision to postpone -- I'm okay with it -- then you have to be willing to live with a very unsatisfying resolution.

 

[menobrown]

can’t believe the talk here of a potential forfeit. On what grounds? That seems so ridiculous to me

Surprised at that myself, seems if the game can't continue it would be a draw or nothing. Failing to see why the Bills would get tagged with a forfeit.

 

[zeeshan2]

Giving both teams a tie only helps KC I think

 

[Anarchy99]

can’t believe the talk here of a potential forfeit. On what grounds? That seems so ridiculous to me

Surprised at that myself, seems if the game can't continue it would be a draw or nothing. Failing to see why the Bills would get tagged with a forfeit.

The way this could end up as a forfeit is if one of the teams refused to finish out the game. For example, the league could say to BUF, we need to finish up Tues or Weds and they could flat out say no. The league could also look to find a suitable date before the playoffs start, and if BUF said no, then the league could say they made every attempt to complete the game and the Bills did not cooperate. As I mentioned earlier, it gets more complicated if both teams indicate they are not interested in completing the game. I suspect the league would then point out that the players wouldn't get paid if they don't play as leverage. That might change opinions on whether they should finish the game. (I doubt we will see a forfeit over this.)

 

[IvanKaramazov]

can’t believe the talk here of a potential forfeit. On what grounds? That seems so ridiculous to me

Surprised at that myself, seems if the game can't continue it would be a draw or nothing. Failing to see why the Bills would get tagged with a forfeit.

Making any prediction about how the NFL handles anything is a fool's errand, but it would not surprise me if the league reaches out to the Bills and Bengals about rescheduling and the Bills just tacitly agree to eat a forfeit instead. I think the team would conclude that that's better for them than trying to squeeze this game into the remaining calendar, and the Pegulas don't strike me as the type to go scorched earth in a situation that calls for mature adults.

That's not "fair" to the Bills, but somebody is going to be hard done by here. That's just the fact of the matter.

Edit: In other words, exactly what @Anarchy99 was just saying while I was typing.

 

[Miro Z]

The league does need to act quickly now. I get that there are massive complexities involved and any solution will be imperfect but there has to be clarity on the way forward asap. They can't just wait for the medical situation to become clear because that may take days.

 

[FreeBaGeL]

HI think football is just a game and pretty meaningless on the grand scale.

Pretty much a thousand times this.

I agree with postponing the game last night, and not that I'm condoning this in any way, but nothing in America is deemed "meaningless" when millions of dollars are on the line.

I hope this isn't considered political, because it's not meant to be, but every day in the American economy decisions are made that prioritize income over people. There is sadly a precedent for this, as there are thousands of workplace deaths every year.

I think @BassNBrew is absolutely right here. The cameras magnify things. Like I said earlier in this thread, an employee was killed at Park City Mountain Resort yesterday when a tree fell on the chair lift line. That lift and a few lifts around it were closed, but half the resort remained open. Today the entire resort is open. No one on this forum is upset about it, because no one here saw it live. This is all a pretty classic "empathy rarely extends beyond the line of sight" scenario.

As for the most likely outcome, I think I agree with @IvanKaramazov that the most likely outcome is that the Bills volunteer to forfeit the game. Unless surprisingly good news comes out on Hamlin's status.

 

[Capella]

can’t believe the talk here of a potential forfeit. On what grounds? That seems so ridiculous to me

Surprised at that myself, seems if the game can't continue it would be a draw or nothing. Failing to see why the Bills would get tagged with a forfeit.

Making any prediction about how the NFL handles anything is a fool's errand, but it would not surprise me if the league reaches out to the Bills and Bengals about rescheduling and the Bills just tacitly agree to eat a forfeit instead. I think the team would conclude that that's better for them than trying to squeeze this game into the remaining calendar, and the Pegulas don't strike me as the type to go scorched earth in a situation that calls for mature adults.

That's not "fair" to the Bills, but somebody is going to be hard done by here. That's just the fact of the matter.

Edit: In other words, exactly what @Anarchy99 was just saying while I was typing.

I think I agree with you here but were the Bills ahead of the chiefs going into this week? If they won out were they the one seed? Because that is truly a crazy outcome to have to go through but one which I bet the players would prefer.

 

[crushedspirit]

I know many of you don’t follow international soccer closely but something very similar happened last year when one of the best players on the pitch collapsed during the Euro Championship tournament. Players ended up finishing that game.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/...ksen-collapses-middle-euro-2020-game-n1270583

He may also have already been stable when players agreed to finish the match. Whereas there were still so many unknowns of Hamlin's condition at the time.

He was stable, and was awake as they carried him off the field.

This was a different situation.

 

[Da Guru]

It is rare but it happens. I remember watching this Red Wings game when Chris Pronger was hit in the chest with a slap shot and collapsed much like Hamlin did. Pronger made a full recovery and played for many years after.

 

[Zow]

can’t believe the talk here of a potential forfeit. On what grounds? That seems so ridiculous to me

The fact that we're even having to have this conversation is why we should move heaven and earth to play through games even when there's a serious injury. Now we're sitting here in Week 17.5 trying to figure out whether to call this game a forfeit, whether to force both teams to play an extra game on short rest right before the playoffs, or some other ridiculous alternative. Everybody was too busy dunking on Skip Bayless last night to think five minutes ahead.

Edit: This is not to say that postponing the game was the wrong decision. Just that if you supported the decision to postpone -- I'm okay with it -- then you have to be willing to live with a very unsatisfying resolution.

Agree completely and I fully expect to be dissatisfied with the NFL solution and the fantasy solutions but am willing to live with such dissatisfaction. I 100% back the decision to not continue with the game last night. Those players experienced real, actual trauma and the league would be arguably negligent in letting them continue.

 

[rockaction]

I think I agree with you here but were the Bills ahead of the chiefs going into this week?

Yes. If they won out, they were the one seed. KC is #2.

 

[Warhogs]

I would be in favor of treating it like a rain out in baseball and not rescheduling it due to it being this late in the season and having the Bengals and Bills only have 16 games on the season. That would seem the most simple solution to me.

 

[ChiefD]

Giving both teams a tie only helps KC I think

Yeah. And honestly, the Chiefs don't deserve that advantage. They lost to both the Bills and Bengals this year.

 

[JohnnyU]

I would be in favor of treating it like a rain out in baseball and not rescheduling it due to it being this late in the season and having the Bengals and Bills only have 16 games on the season. That would seem the most simple solution to me.

I think cancelling the game opens up a can of worms the NFL doesn't want to open. Not to be insensitive, but that hasn't been the precedence in the past, so why should it be now?

 

[rockaction]

I think cancelling the game opens up a can of worms the NFL doesn't want to open.

NFL is dealing with the NFLPA, don't forget.

 

[Anarchy99]

I would be in favor of treating it like a rain out in baseball and not rescheduling it due to it being this late in the season and having the Bengals and Bills only have 16 games on the season. That would seem the most simple solution to me.

Except that completely changes the trajectory of the playoff seedings. BUF would fall from the #1 seed and lose out on a bye and homefield advantage throughout the playoffs (they would no longer be ahead of KC on a tiebreaker). By finishing the game, BUF, KC, and CIN would all be in the running for the top seed. CIN could end up as high as #1 or as low as #5 in playoff seeding.

 

[Leroy Hoard]

I would be in favor of treating it like a rain out in baseball and not rescheduling it due to it being this late in the season and having the Bengals and Bills only have 16 games on the season. That would seem the most simple solution to me.

I think cancelling the game opens up a can of worms the NFL doesn't want to open. Not to be insensitive, but that hasn't been the precedence in the past, so why should it be now?

Using the MLB example, they only cancel those games when they don't have playoff implications.

 

[Anarchy99]

I think cancelling the game opens up a can of worms the NFL doesn't want to open.

NFL is dealing with the NFLPA, don't forget.

The NFL is contracted with the NFLPA for each team to play 17 games. There's not a lot the NFLPA can say about that.

 

[BassNBrew]

I would be in favor of treating it like a rain out in baseball and not rescheduling it due to it being this late in the season and having the Bengals and Bills only have 16 games on the season. That would seem the most simple solution to me.

Leroy beat me to it. MLB would reschedule and delay the playoffs.

I would be in favor of treating it like a rain out in baseball and not rescheduling it due to it being this late in the season and having the Bengals and Bills only have 16 games on the season. That would seem the most simple solution to me.

I think cancelling the game opens up a can of worms the NFL doesn't want to open. Not to be insensitive, but that hasn't been the precedence in the past, so why should it be now?

Using the MLB example, they only cancel those games when they don't have playoff implications.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

I would be in favor of treating it like a rain out in baseball and not rescheduling it due to it being this late in the season and having the Bengals and Bills only have 16 games on the season. That would seem the most simple solution to me.

I think cancelling the game opens up a can of worms the NFL doesn't want to open. Not to be insensitive, but that hasn't been the precedence in the past, so why should it be now?

There's also no precedence for last night's decision to postpone. We're firmly in one-off territory right now.

 

[BassNBrew]

I think cancelling the game opens up a can of worms the NFL doesn't want to open.

NFL is dealing with the NFLPA, don't forget.

The NFL is contracted with the NFLPA for each team to play 17 games. There's not a lot the NFLPA can say about that.

Wonder if the contract defines what a "played game" is.

 

[Capella]

I think I agree with you here but were the Bills ahead of the chiefs going into this week?

Yes. If they won out, they were the one seed. KC is #2.

Sheesh.

 

[menobrown]

I think @BassNBrew is absolutely right here. The cameras magnify things. Like I said earlier in this thread, an employee was killed at Park City Mountain Resort yesterday when a tree fell on the chair lift line. That lift and a few lifts around it were closed, but half the resort remained open. Today the entire resort is open. No one here is upset about it, because no one here saw it live. This is all a pretty classic "empathy rarely extends beyond the line of sight" scenario.

It's tough to swallow sometimes but life does move on and calling the NFL a "game" is not really accurate. A game is what you play in your backyard, this is a business.

Tons of story's like you shared. On New Years Eve a groundscrew member at Montgomery Airport in Alabama got sucked into the engine of a jet. 4 hours later everyone was back at it.

To me no doubt the game had to get suspended last night but also no doubt they got to try and re-schedule it and quickly.

 

[Judge Smails]

I agree with Ryan Clark’s comments last night. If you had the players in that mental state continue to play last night or today you would get a “trash game”. Think Broncos against the Rams last week. When heads aren’t in a game where emotion and intensity are mandatory then you get listless football. One could say these teams had something to play for and the Broncos didn’t. But there was no other choice last night. If they could figure out COVID scheduling stuff they can figure this out.

And the coaches preach brotherhood every day in the locker room. They had to walk the walk with this situation. Could permanently damage a locker room.

 

[IHEARTFF]

I think I agree with you here but were the Bills ahead of the chiefs going into this week?

Yes. If they won out, they were the one seed. KC is #2.

Sheesh.

yeah, all 3 of KC, Buf, and Cin could be the 1, 2, or 3 seed depending on results of this and week 18.

 

[JohnnyU]

I think @BassNBrew is absolutely right here. The cameras magnify things. Like I said earlier in this thread, an employee was killed at Park City Mountain Resort yesterday when a tree fell on the chair lift line. That lift and a few lifts around it were closed, but half the resort remained open. Today the entire resort is open. No one here is upset about it, because no one here saw it live. This is all a pretty classic "empathy rarely extends beyond the line of sight" scenario.

It's tough to swallow sometimes but life does move on and calling the NFL a "game" is not really accurate. A game is what you play in your backyard, this is a business.

Tons of story's like you shared. On New Years Eve a groundscrew member at Montgomery Airport in Alabama got sucked into the engine of a jet. 4 hours later everyone was back at it.

To me no doubt the game had to get suspended last night but also no doubt they got to try and re-schedule it and quickly.

Common sense here. Yes, suspend last night, but continue the game ASAP. Why would they start cancelling games now, when they haven't in the past, such as the Chuck Hughes death, the Kennedy assassination, the Darryl Stingley getting paralyzed and other players getting paralyzed or worse in a game?

 

[Bri]

Don’t play this game. No makeup and if Bengals and Bills meet in playoffs then a neutral site could be a resolution.

Honestly, I like this solution. Whoever won this game would likely have had home field (relative to the other - not necessarily home field overall), so it would make sense as a no-contest. If there could be some way to ensure some kind of 50/50 ticket sales split between the teams and a reasonably equitable distance, that's a cool idea. Pittsburgh (4 hr 30 min from Cincinnati and 3 hr 30 min from Buffalo) or Cleveland (3 hr 45 min from Cincinnati and 3 hr from Buffalo) could work.

If they're picking neutral then Tennessee might be better weather.
Weird but true that home teams love snow and everyone else doesn't.

Hey, we’re still hoping to be in it! Unless you mean Knoxville?
But you don’t get better weather for the game than Detroit.

Lol I don't believe the Titans will be when it's time for these two teams in the playoffs.

I really think wives and families are going to be saying "retire" and in the least want to be there more than usual. Nashville seems to be a place everyone visits so it might be good for the whole family and not just the game

 

[Pipes]

I think @BassNBrew is absolutely right here. The cameras magnify things. Like I said earlier in this thread, an employee was killed at Park City Mountain Resort yesterday when a tree fell on the chair lift line. That lift and a few lifts around it were closed, but half the resort remained open. Today the entire resort is open. No one here is upset about it, because no one here saw it live. This is all a pretty classic "empathy rarely extends beyond the line of sight" scenario.

It's tough to swallow sometimes but life does move on and calling the NFL a "game" is not really accurate. A game is what you play in your backyard, this is a business.

Tons of story's like you shared. On New Years Eve a groundscrew member at Montgomery Airport in Alabama got sucked into the engine of a jet. 4 hours later everyone was back at it.

To me no doubt the game had to get suspended last night but also no doubt they got to try and re-schedule it and quickly.

Common sense here. Yes, suspend last night, but continue the game ASAP. Why would they start cancelling games now, when they haven't in the past, such as the Chuck Hughes death, the Kennedy assassination, the Darryl Stingley getting paralyzed and other players getting paralyzed or worse in a game?

The issue is the tight NFL schedule. They really need to play tomorrow at the absolute latest. Even that doesn't work without moving Bills and Bengals Sunday's games to Monday or even Tuesday and with the playoffs starting a week from Sat. Something needs to happen asap or this game will be cancelled.

 

[Bri]

I think @BassNBrew is absolutely right here. The cameras magnify things. Like I said earlier in this thread, an employee was killed at Park City Mountain Resort yesterday when a tree fell on the chair lift line. That lift and a few lifts around it were closed, but half the resort remained open. Today the entire resort is open. No one here is upset about it, because no one here saw it live. This is all a pretty classic "empathy rarely extends beyond the line of sight" scenario.

It's tough to swallow sometimes but life does move on and calling the NFL a "game" is not really accurate. A game is what you play in your backyard, this is a business.

Tons of story's like you shared. On New Years Eve a groundscrew member at Montgomery Airport in Alabama got sucked into the engine of a jet. 4 hours later everyone was back at it.

To me no doubt the game had to get suspended last night but also no doubt they got to try and re-schedule it and quickly.

Common sense here. Yes, suspend last night, but continue the game ASAP. Why would they start doing this now, when they haven't in the past, such as the Chuck Hughes death, the Darryl Stingley getting paralyzed and other players getting paralyzed or worse in a game?

The timing is awful.
We discussed it last night.
Today I've seen a suggestion games Thursday and Tuesday for these teams and their Sunday opponents.
That might be doable. I don't think wed and Sunday will happen.

Somewhere in here the NFLPA "has to" fight for player safety. In our reactive society it's always a bigger deal after the fact so let's see how big a stink they put up. I think this is an OK understood time to disregard paychecks and focus solely on safety.

They can't just brush it off as a freak (unfortunate and sad, prayers for him) accident and must show up big here. No doubt the players expect that.

Then the NFL has to respond to their bold statement and....we gotta let this public discussion thru press releases play out.

I don't like this puppet show stuff leaders in our society do. It's uncomfortable to think about and to word even but...it's gonna happen.

 

[Anarchy99]

I think @BassNBrew is absolutely right here. The cameras magnify things. Like I said earlier in this thread, an employee was killed at Park City Mountain Resort yesterday when a tree fell on the chair lift line. That lift and a few lifts around it were closed, but half the resort remained open. Today the entire resort is open. No one here is upset about it, because no one here saw it live. This is all a pretty classic "empathy rarely extends beyond the line of sight" scenario.

It's tough to swallow sometimes but life does move on and calling the NFL a "game" is not really accurate. A game is what you play in your backyard, this is a business.

Tons of story's like you shared. On New Years Eve a groundscrew member at Montgomery Airport in Alabama got sucked into the engine of a jet. 4 hours later everyone was back at it.

To me no doubt the game had to get suspended last night but also no doubt they got to try and re-schedule it and quickly.

Common sense here. Yes, suspend last night, but continue the game ASAP. Why would they start cancelling games now, when they haven't in the past, such as the Chuck Hughes death, the Kennedy assassination, the Darryl Stingley getting paralyzed and other players getting paralyzed or worse in a game?

The issue is the tight NFL schedule. They really need to play tomorrow at the absolute latest. Even that doesn't work without moving Bills and Bengals Sunday's games to Monday or even Tuesday and with the playoffs starting a week from Sat. Something needs to happen asap or this game will be cancelled.

The league can do whatever it wants. Highly unlikely they cancel the game, as it would change the entire playoff seeding in the AFC. They can play the Week 18 games, finish the CIN / BUF game the following weekend, push the playoffs out a week, and have only one week between the conference finals and the SB.

 

[JohnnyU]

I think @BassNBrew is absolutely right here. The cameras magnify things. Like I said earlier in this thread, an employee was killed at Park City Mountain Resort yesterday when a tree fell on the chair lift line. That lift and a few lifts around it were closed, but half the resort remained open. Today the entire resort is open. No one here is upset about it, because no one here saw it live. This is all a pretty classic "empathy rarely extends beyond the line of sight" scenario.

It's tough to swallow sometimes but life does move on and calling the NFL a "game" is not really accurate. A game is what you play in your backyard, this is a business.

Tons of story's like you shared. On New Years Eve a groundscrew member at Montgomery Airport in Alabama got sucked into the engine of a jet. 4 hours later everyone was back at it.

To me no doubt the game had to get suspended last night but also no doubt they got to try and re-schedule it and quickly.

Common sense here. Yes, suspend last night, but continue the game ASAP. Why would they start cancelling games now, when they haven't in the past, such as the Chuck Hughes death, the Kennedy assassination, the Darryl Stingley getting paralyzed and other players getting paralyzed or worse in a game?

The issue is the tight NFL schedule. They really need to play tomorrow at the absolute latest. Even that doesn't work without moving Bills and Bengals Sunday's games to Monday or even Tuesday and with the playoffs starting a week from Sat. Something needs to happen asap or this game will be cancelled.

Move the playoff schedule out a week.

 

[Pipes]

I think @BassNBrew is absolutely right here. The cameras magnify things. Like I said earlier in this thread, an employee was killed at Park City Mountain Resort yesterday when a tree fell on the chair lift line. That lift and a few lifts around it were closed, but half the resort remained open. Today the entire resort is open. No one here is upset about it, because no one here saw it live. This is all a pretty classic "empathy rarely extends beyond the line of sight" scenario.

It's tough to swallow sometimes but life does move on and calling the NFL a "game" is not really accurate. A game is what you play in your backyard, this is a business.

Tons of story's like you shared. On New Years Eve a groundscrew member at Montgomery Airport in Alabama got sucked into the engine of a jet. 4 hours later everyone was back at it.

To me no doubt the game had to get suspended last night but also no doubt they got to try and re-schedule it and quickly.

Common sense here. Yes, suspend last night, but continue the game ASAP. Why would they start cancelling games now, when they haven't in the past, such as the Chuck Hughes death, the Kennedy assassination, the Darryl Stingley getting paralyzed and other players getting paralyzed or worse in a game?

The issue is the tight NFL schedule. They really need to play tomorrow at the absolute latest. Even that doesn't work without moving Bills and Bengals Sunday's games to Monday or even Tuesday and with the playoffs starting a week from Sat. Something needs to happen asap or this game will be cancelled.

Move the playoff schedule out a week.

I'm good with that not so sure the NFL and their TV partners are

 

[-OZ-]

Don’t play this game. No makeup and if Bengals and Bills meet in playoffs then a neutral site could be a resolution.

Honestly, I like this solution. Whoever won this game would likely have had home field (relative to the other - not necessarily home field overall), so it would make sense as a no-contest. If there could be some way to ensure some kind of 50/50 ticket sales split between the teams and a reasonably equitable distance, that's a cool idea. Pittsburgh (4 hr 30 min from Cincinnati and 3 hr 30 min from Buffalo) or Cleveland (3 hr 45 min from Cincinnati and 3 hr from Buffalo) could work.

If they're picking neutral then Tennessee might be better weather.
Weird but true that home teams love snow and everyone else doesn't.

Hey, we’re still hoping to be in it! Unless you mean Knoxville?
But you don’t get better weather for the game than Detroit.

Lol I don't believe the Titans will be when it's time for these two teams in the playoffs.

I really think wives and families are going to be saying "retire" and in the least want to be there more than usual. Nashville seems to be a place everyone visits so it might be good for the whole family and not just the game

Understood
Many sports and activities have the occasional tragic incident. We’ve had people die in triathlon which we mostly do for fun. It sucks, but most of us won’t stop doing it due to the slight risk. I’d assume that’s even more so for pro sports. If you’re retiring because of risk, it’s far more likely due to injury than this tragedy.

 

[crushedspirit]

I don't see the NFL changing the entire playoff schedule for this one matchup.

 

[JohnnyU]

I think @BassNBrew is absolutely right here. The cameras magnify things. Like I said earlier in this thread, an employee was killed at Park City Mountain Resort yesterday when a tree fell on the chair lift line. That lift and a few lifts around it were closed, but half the resort remained open. Today the entire resort is open. No one here is upset about it, because no one here saw it live. This is all a pretty classic "empathy rarely extends beyond the line of sight" scenario.

It's tough to swallow sometimes but life does move on and calling the NFL a "game" is not really accurate. A game is what you play in your backyard, this is a business.

Tons of story's like you shared. On New Years Eve a groundscrew member at Montgomery Airport in Alabama got sucked into the engine of a jet. 4 hours later everyone was back at it.

To me no doubt the game had to get suspended last night but also no doubt they got to try and re-schedule it and quickly.

Common sense here. Yes, suspend last night, but continue the game ASAP. Why would they start doing this now, when they haven't in the past, such as the Chuck Hughes death, the Darryl Stingley getting paralyzed and other players getting paralyzed or worse in a game?

The timing is awful.
We discussed it last night.
Today I've seen a suggestion games Thursday and Tuesday for these teams and their Sunday opponents.
That might be doable. I don't think wed and Sunday will happen.

Somewhere in here the NFLPA "has to" fight for player safety. In our reactive society it's always a bigger deal after the fact so let's see how big a stink they put up. I think this is an OK understood time to disregard paychecks and focus solely on safety.

They can't just brush it off as a freak (unfortunate and sad, prayers for him) accident and must show up big here. No doubt the players expect that.

Then the NFL has to respond to their bold statement and....we gotta let this public discussion thru press releases play out.

I don't like this puppet show stuff leaders in our society do. It's uncomfortable to think about and to word even but...it's gonna happen.

Again, what has changed with this incident that is different from the other tragedies on game day? There is no way in hell they cancel this game, nor should they.

 

[Gatorman]

First time in the thread. If it were up to me, they play the remainder of the game tomorrow and the Bills play the pats sunday night or monday early and the Bengals game becomes a monday nighter. The AFC wild card games if they involve either of these (now 4 teams) moves to Sunday and the NFC plays saturday.

 

[Anarchy99]

I don't see the NFL changing the entire playoff schedule for this one matchup.

Then the other option is they play the rest of BUF / CIN tomorrow and reschedule BUF / NE and BAL / CIN to Monday.

 

[crushedspirit]

I don't see the NFL changing the entire playoff schedule for this one matchup.

Then the other option is they play the rest of BUF / CIN tomorrow and reschedule BUF / NE and BAL / CIN to Monday.

This scenario I can see happening

 

[jm192]

It may be well done past time that we reconsider how this game is played. Player safety is critical and the NFL needs to step up and see what changes are needed.

There are lots of things we can point to and question player safety.

This aint it. This was a freak occurence. There have been thousands, 10's of thousands of shoulders lowered into a guy's chest.
I think if we're saying you can't lower your shoulder to break a tackle/fight for more yards in the name of safety--You almost have to cancel football all together.

I think in the offseason maybe they need to look at some kind of heart protection like little leaguers use.

Don't think this was from any contact. Christian Eriksen of Denmark had the same thing happen to him in a game in 2021. No contact, just dropped. Good news, he returned to play less than a year after his incident.

Oh I did think this was from contact. He took a shoulder to the chest and 5 seconds later fell over.
Commotio Cordis makes too much sense.

 

[jm192]

I don't see the NFL changing the entire playoff schedule for this one matchup.

Then the other option is they play the rest of BUF / CIN tomorrow and reschedule BUF / NE and BAL / CIN to Monday.

This. Was about to type this.

We were moving games around a ton during covid to accommodate the previous week's games.

Seems like the easy, obvious solution.

 

[BassNBrew]

I don't see the NFL changing the entire playoff schedule for this one matchup.

Then the other option is they play the rest of BUF / CIN tomorrow and reschedule BUF / NE and BAL / CIN to Monday.

But first we must let an appropriate enough time pass that it's politically correct to do something. In Park City it's a half day or less when someone dies. With the cameras on the NFL it takes longer when someone is in critical condition. That's the reality for better or worse.

 

[SoBeDad]

The NFL and NFLPA agreed to go from 16 to 17 games ... more money was the main reason. The NFLPA vote was close and some "safety" concessions were obtained. It's mostly about maximizing the money, while a second priority is player safety, even for the NFLPA. Last night's injury was freakish, impossible to prevent. Note that Hamlin was playing because of a neck injury to another player. My brother played college ball for 2 years at a division 2 school and blames his knee and hip replacements on football. But he would do it again. Risk reward. Overall, tackle football is unhealthy.

 

[Dr. Octopus]

If the reporting around here is accurate and we won't see a meaningful update on Hamlin for at least another 24 hours, I have to agree that the NFL can not reschedule this game while Hamlin's condition is still critical. This game will be cancelled.

And if he's still critical on Sunday do they cancel that game too?

Of course not. This shouldn't even be up for discussion.

Of course not. This shouldn't even be up for discussion.

If you use the logic that led us to postponement, then that logic applies to Sunday also.

I think there's a material difference between pushing a pause button when everyone is standing there shell-shocked vs. a week later when folks have had a chance to compose themselves. Lots and lots of NFL games have been played in the wake of some tragedy or another. This Sunday's games will fall into that category. Sorry if that comes across as heartless, but there's a long precedent for how to handle this type of thing. (Next week's games, not last night's game -- that's a thorny issue, illustrating why the league is right to want games to play on unless absolutely necessary).

I understand this point of view, but its also considering a best case scenario regarding Hamlin's health. Heaven forbid Buffalo has to deal with additional tragedy from this event that can happen at any moment in the upcoming week. I just agree there is no right answer and I fully respect players who say this is only a game to keep that in perspective.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article270666997.html

How long do you think construction in Charlotte is shut down? Is every scaffold in the country shut down today for a safety inspection? If I had to rate the situation I'd say the one where 3 families have lost loved ones on the job is much more severe this this situation. I suspect most of us don't care less about the construction workers, we just care more about the situation we saw live on TV.

I don’t think anyone is saying that all life stops when some one dies. I think the logistics for this particular game is a bit shaky for many reasons.

 

[Anarchy99]

The NFL and NFLPA agreed to go from 16 to 17 games ... more money was the main reason. The NFLPA vote was close and some "safety" concessions were obtained. It's mostly about maximizing the money, while a second priority is player safety, even for the NFLPA. Last night's injury was freakish, impossible to prevent. Note that Hamlin was playing because of a neck injury to another player. My brother played college ball for 2 years at a division 2 school and blames his knee and hip replacements on football. But he would do it again. Risk reward. Overall, tackle football is unhealthy.

A different topic for a different day, but the other major sports haven guaranteed contracts, yet the gladiator-like aspect of football with more potential risk of debilitating injury has very few contracts that are guaranteed. We could go pages and pages discussing the NFLPA and their relationship with the NFL.

 

[ignatiusjreilly]

---

Bayless is like Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins. It's his previous body of work that is the problem when he does stuff like this. His body of work is littered with inhumane, stupid, provocative things and people are no longer willing to cut him slack for it. He deserves the rep.

I didn't find his tweet at all offensive, but knowing his output, I'm not at all surprised people are having the reaction they're having to it.

I had the same reaction. I also think that at moments like that, people feel the need to have strong reactions, even better if they can find a villain. Hence all the takes in here about the NFL and the "five minutes", ESPN's coverage, etc. I'm not even judging anyone for that stuff. I think it's a totally normal human response. Seeing someone collapse like that is super scary and forces us all to confront our own mortality. We're going to have reactions that, in the cold light of day, may seem inappropriate.

FYI, shortly after I posted this, I listened to Chris Harris’ Harris Football podcast, where he opened the show by making the same point far more eloquently than I did. His key insight IMO was that all of this, from identifying villains to donating to Hamlin’s foundation, are all about giving us some feeling of control in a scary situation.

If you don’t want to listen to the whole podcast, you can just check out the first 5min or so to hear his take.

 

[JohnnyU]

I don't see the NFL changing the entire playoff schedule for this one matchup.

Then the other option is they play the rest of BUF / CIN tomorrow and reschedule BUF / NE and BAL / CIN to Monday.

This makes the most sense.

 

[DJackson10]

can’t believe the talk here of a potential forfeit. On what grounds? That seems so ridiculous to me

I won't say what I really want to as I could be sent to timeout but it just shows people's true colors and how inhumane some are. Internet is bringing a lot of them out today. I'll put it this way for those folks who want a forfeit. Lets says you have a team member during a crucial time at work that collapses suddenly as your team is closing a big deal client. Everyone is distraught over it etc. Both parties agree to suspend talks till further notice as the concern is on the person in a trauma incident. How would you feel if you were the company getting this huge client that the client says "ok we want you to pull out of the deal do to your coworker."? Yeah you'd think it was pretty ****ty yourself

 

[DJackson10]

I don't see the NFL changing the entire playoff schedule for this one matchup.

Then the other option is they play the rest of BUF / CIN tomorrow and reschedule BUF / NE and BAL / CIN to Monday.

This. Was about to type this.

We were moving games around a ton during covid to accommodate the previous week's games.

Seems like the easy, obvious solution.

Yep thats what I see happening eventually

 

[Penguin]

Joe Danneman
@FOX19Joe

Source: Bills are flying home. They are not staying in Cincinnati.