Bedard: NFL shaken as Bills-Bengals postponed after Buffalo safety Damar Hamlin collapses during MNF

UPDATE

The NFL has announced Bills-Bengals will not be resumed this week. Statement:

The NFL continues to be in regular contact with the medical team caring for Damar Hamlin, and also the Bills and Bengals organizations and the NFL Players Association.

After speaking with both teams and NFLPA leadership, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell informed the clubs today that the Bills-Bengals game will not be resumed this week.

The NFL has made no decision regarding the possible resumption of the game at a later date.

The league has not made any changes to the Week 18 regular season schedule.

We will continue to provide additional information as it becomes available.

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From the Associated Press:

Bills safety Damar Hamlin was in critical condition after he collapsed on the field Monday night, the NFL said, and Buffalo’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals was suspended.

Hamlin was administered CPR on the field, ESPN reported, and he was surrounded by teammates, some of them in tears, after he was hurt while tackling Bengals receiver Tee Higgins.

Higgins led with his right shoulder, which hit Hamlin in the chest. Hamlin then wrapped his arms around Higgins’ shoulders and helmet to drag him down. Hamlin got to his feet, appeared to adjust his face mask with his right hand, and then fell backward about three seconds later and lay motionless.

Hamlin was treated on the field by team and independent medical personnel and local paramedics, the NFL said, and he was taken by ambulance to University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Teammate Stefon Diggs later joined Hamlin at the hospital.

About 100 Bills fans and a few Bengals fans gathered on a corner one block from the emergency room entrance with some of them holding candles.

The NFL announced more than an hour after the injury that the game would not resume.

“Our thoughts are with Damar and the Buffalo Bills. We will provide more information as it becomes available,” the league said in a statement. “The NFL has been in constant communication with the NFL Players Association which is in agreement with postponing the game.”

An ambulance was on the field four minutes after Hamlin collapsed, with many players in tears, including cornerback Tre’Davious White. The quarterbacks — Buffalo’s Josh Allen and Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow — embraced.

“Please pray for our brother,” Allen tweeted.

Hamlin collapsed at 8:55 p.m., and when he was taken off the field about 19 minutes later, the Bills gathered in prayer. A few minutes after the ambulance left the field, the game was suspended, and players walked off the field slowly and into their locker rooms.

Hamlin’s uniform was cut off and he appeared to be getting CPR from medical personnel. ESPN reported on its telecast that Hamlin was also given oxygen.

“No one’s been through this,” Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman said on the ESPN telecast. “I’ve never seen anything like it, either.”

The Bengals led 7-3 in the first quarter of a game between teams vying for the top playoff seed in the AFC. Cincinnati entered at 11-4 and leading the AFC North by one game over Baltimore, while AFC East champion Buffalo was 12-3.

“The NFLPA and everyone in our community is praying for Damar Hamlin,” the players’ union said in a statement. “We have been in touch with Bills and Bengals players, and with the NFL. The only thing that matters at this moment is Damar’s health and well being.”

It was unknown when or if the game would resume as the NFL enters the final week of the regular season. The outcome has major playoff implications with the wild-card round scheduled to begin on Jan. 14.

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The 24-year-old Hamlin spent five years of college at Pittsburgh — his hometown — and appeared in 48 games for the Panthers over that span. He was a second-team All-ACC performer as a senior, was voted a team captain and was picked to play in the Senior Bowl.

He was drafted in the sixth round by the Bills in 2021, played in 14 games as a rookie and then became a starter this year once Micah Hyde was lost for the season to injury.

Some Patriots reactions:

There are a lot of different angles to this story that need to be discussed because the NFL will resume at some point but, first and foremost, nothing supersedes the health of Hamlin. This was everyone's worst nightmare, and all prayers and thoughts go to him and his family surviving this and recovering.

Very quickly, probably by midday Tuesday, the NFL at large will resume. This is Week 17, and the playoffs are rapidly approaching. Play will resume in the NFL, likely on Saturday with the Chiefs-Raiders/Titans-Jaguars doubleheaders.

A few thoughts:

• The first things that came to my mind were Hank Gathers, the late Loyola-Marymount star, and Reggie Lewis. Unfortunately, those stunning and sad events do happen.
• I thought coaches Sean McDermott and Zach Taylor showed a lot of leadership on this taking the teams back to the locker rooms. Coaches have to take care of their players first, and they did that, with Taylor obviously referring to McDermott, who looked very shaken about what transpired.
• I think about all the NFL players and how this will permeate their warrior-like membrane. They don't often contemplate their mortality — hard to do what they do when you do that — and this will puncture that. Good thing most teams are off on Tuesday before beginning their prep on Wednesday morning. I'm sure there are a lot of texts among them, and some tough conversations at home with their families.
• The NFL machine never stops, especially among coaches. In 30 cities — including in New England — the coaches probably paused a bit to check up on TV reports, then they went back to gameplanning as they normally do into the wee hours of Tuesday morning, and that will continue into the wee hours of Wednesday morning. A game will be played. The work has to get done.

WHAT NOW?

There are reports that the Bills are planning to leave as they normally would. I would be a little surprised they would leave without visiting the hospital on the way, but Stefon Diggs did make the trip to the medical center.

With Buffalo leaving, it seems impossible the game will be resumed this week — and by rule it needs to be resumed unless the commissioner intervenes.

The game has big AFC seeding significance, but only if the Bengals win and Chiefs lose this weekend. In that case, the Bengals would be the top seed by virtue of beating each of the other two 12-4 teams.

Here is the Week 18 slate for each team, and the current schedule:

Chiefs at Raiders, 4:30 p.m. Saturday
Ravens at Bengals, TBD Sunday (they were waiting on the MNF result)
Patriots at Bills, 1 p.m. Sunday

If the Chiefs and Bengals lose this weekend and the Bills win, the seedings would be locked in:

1. Bills 13-3 (hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over KC)
2. Chiefs 13-4
3. Bengals 11-5

There would be no need to resume Bengals-Chiefs — even if the Chiefs lost to the Bengals, nothing would change — Roger Goodell could declare it a draw.

There are 16 games scheduled for this weekend. I have a hard time seeing the NFL pushing those off for one game.

I think it's much more likely the NFL plays Week 18 as scheduled. If Bills-Bengals needs to be played, then they figure that out. They could push the playoffs back a week, and eat into the Super Bowl bye week. That would be the easiest thing.

Another alternative altering the schedule a bit — which the NFL did during Covid and probably wouldn't be shy about. Move Ravens at Bengals, Patriots-Bills to Saturday. If Bills-Bengals needs to be played, do it Wednesday. Push back their wild-card playoff game(s) to Monday or Tuesday, and possibly their corresponding divisional games.

I can't see it being declared a tie or no contest just outright, but it can't be ruled out.

IMPACT ON THE PATRIOTS

Come Wednesday, I would expect Bill Belichick to address the situation with the team and talk to them about it, likely with one or more captains (Devin McCourty, Matthew Slater) talking to the team on how to process this information. Belichick did great discussing sensitive topics like Black Lives Matter in the past. I'm sure he would rely on that experience.

Then it would be getting directly back to the task at hand: winning their final game at Buffalo to qualify for the postseason.

Buffalo is a tough place to play regardless. The Bills have a closer relationship with their fans than most towns outside Green Bay, and that will make for a very emotional venue whenever they play that game.