For Bills DB Damar Hamlin, Sean McDermott & Zac Taylor Made Only Right Move
When the unthinkable happened on an NFL field ... namely Buffalo Bills defender Damar Hamlin collapsing after a first quarter tackle during Monday's game against the Cincinnati Bengals ... his teammates and opponents, equally distraught and affected by the scene were given five minutes to warm up in anticipation of a game continuance.
Five minutes.
Football as a whole is a sport that's impossible to stop. Look no further than the holiday season, with Christmas and New Year's celebrations marked by high-stakes contests. So when an extended delay surrounded Hamlin's status - marked by the arrival of an ambulance that took Hamlin to UC Medical Center, where he's listed in critical condition - that added a whole new level of tragedy to an already nightmarish situation.
But those affected most by what transpired were given five minutes to, more or less, get over it. Five minutes, 300 seconds that more or less fulfilled every single jingoistic meme of machismo that football detractors use as a joke.
Respective Buffalo and Cincinnati head coaches Sean McDermott and Zac Taylor, thankfully, did what the NFL, more or less didn't want to do before finally coming to its senses.
Long before the outrageous 300-second warm-up expired, McDermott and Taylor met on the field of Paycor Stadium. Humanity prevailed through a brief conversation and players moved to the locker room shortly after.
It's downright disturbing that five minutes was what supposedly was required to get over what was by far one of the scariest situations seen in recent professional sports memory.
But rivalries were tossed aside. Playoff seeding on the mind of everyone watching Monday's game was deemed irrelevant.
Someone in an authority position needed to make the right move in Monday's game, to remove players from a horrifying situation, the unthinkable, unmentionable in the supposedly impenetrable entertainment sphere that is professional football.
By no means whatsoever should it have taken the NFL as long as it did to make the sole right decision to end Monday's game. In their actions, McDermott and Taylor truly defined the roles of head coaches, serving as leaders in the most uncomfortable, unfathomable way possible.
Pray for Damar Hamlin.
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