Bills safety Damar Hollin suffered cardiac arrest. His heartbeat was restored on field
The Buffalo Bills confirmed the seriousness of the safety incident involving safety Damar Hamlin. In the first quarter of the Bills’ Monday night game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Hamlin was injured following a tackle of Bengals receiver Tee Higgins. After the play, he stood up and fell to the ground.
First, the game was temporarily halted. Later, it was rescheduled.
“Medical advice guided our decision,” NFL Chief Football Administrative Officer Dawn Aponte told reporters A conference call was held after midnight EST. “We remained in constant communication with both teams, medical personnel, game officials and ownership. We made decisions that we believed to be in the best interest of Damar’s status and the state of both teams – players and staffs. There couldn’t have been more collaboration throughout this process by all parties.”
Troy Vincent, NFL VP for Football Operations, was a former player in the NFL, including three seasons with Bills.
“Neither coach frankly was talking about resuming play and the players weren’t… It was really about Damar,” Vincent said. “I’ve never seen anything like it since I’ve been playing. My player hat was on immediately. How do you resume playing after witnessing such a horrible event in real life? And that’s the way we were thinking about it. The commissioner and I and others.”
Jeff Miller, NFL Vice-President of Communications, Public Affairs, and Policy said that rescheduling the match is not in consideration.
“Our concern is with the player and his wellbeing. At the appropriate time I’m sure we’ll have a conversation around the next steps regarding the game.”