🙏 Tubz 🛀 Unfiltered: Volume 62
Prayers up for Bills safety Damar Hamlin
Happy Monday Tuesday, y’all —
This week’s volume will steer away from the normal format due to the heartbreaking news involving Bills safety Damar Hamlin. My thoughts and prayers are with Hamlin, his family and friends, the Bills, and anyone else affected by this horrific incident.
During the Monday Night Football contest involving the Cincinnati Bengals and the Buffalo Bills, Hamlin tackled wide receiver Tee Higgins, and it appeared that Higgins’ shoulder/helmet made direct contact with Hamlin’s chest. Hamlin stood up after the tackle, with his chest facing midfield, but then immediately collapsed on his back.
Medical professionals gave Hamlin CPR on the field for several minutes after he collapsed and also reportedly used an automated external defibrillator (AED). He was removed from the field of play via ambulance more than 15 minutes after he collapsed and was transported to University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
Joe Buck noted on the ESPN broadcast several times that the NFL was going to only give both teams a five-minute “break” before resuming play. The league refuted that. Troy Vincent, the league’s Executive VP of Football Operations:
I’m not sure where that came from … Frankly, there was no time period for the players to get warmed up. Frankly, the only thing that we asked was that [referee] Shawn [Hochuli] communicate with both head coaches to make sure they had the proper time inside the locker room to discuss what they felt like was best. So I’m not sure where that came from. Five-minute warmup never crossed my mind, personally. And I was the one . . . that was communicating with the Commissioner. We never, frankly, it never crossed our mind to talk about warming up to resume play. That’s ridiculous. That’s insensitive. And that’s not a place that we should ever be in.
Bills head coach Sean McDermott and Bengals head coach Zac Taylor greeted each other at midfield at some point after the ambulance left the field and said — I would imagine — “Hell no, we aren’t playing.” Thereafter, the game was temporarily suspended and roughly an hour later, the game was permanently suspended. As of this writing, the NFL has not announced whether the game will be made up or whether it will result in a tie. Frankly, who cares — the game is inconsequential at this time.
At 8:20pm CST, Fox19 (Ohio) sports anchor Joe Danneman reported that Hamlin “has a pulse, but is not breathing on his own.”
At 8:53pm CST, Tricia Macke, also of Fox19, reported that Hamlin was “intubated and is currently listed in critical condition.”
At 9:31pm CST, Jordon Rooney, Hamlin’s marketing rep, tweeted the following update: “His vitals are back to normal and they have put him to sleep to put a breathing tube down his throat. They are currently running tests.”
Several medical doctors posted on social media Monday night that they believed that Hamlin suffered from commotio cordis, which is a “phenomenon that occurs when a sudden blunt impact to the chest causes cardiac arrest.”
The Bills issued the following statement at around 2am Tuesday morning: “Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest following a hit in the Buffalo Bills’ game versus the Cincinnati Bengals. His heartbeat was restored on the field and he was transferred to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for further testing and treatment. He is currently sedated and listed in critical condition.”
Hamlin organized a toy drive roughly two years ago, with a goal of raising of $2,500. The GoFundMe link for the toy drive was dispersed around the internet on Monday and people stepped up in droves. As of 11:00am CST on Tuesday, almost $4 million has been raised via over 149,000 donations. If you are so inclined, you can donate here.
The Hamlin family posted the following announcement on Twitter Tuesday morning:
According to ProFootballTalk: “The Eagles and Patriots have announced that media availabilities with assistant coaches that were scheduled for Tuesday will be canceled or postponed until another date. Other teams will likely be following suit as it seems clear that there’s little appetite for those usual beats of the football week.”
Brief collection of media press clippings that I thought were worth sharing.
Any corrections, omissions, etc., send 'em my way. Much love. -Tubz