I keep reading things on line around what the league should do. What the Bills should do because of what happened with Hamlin. Stopping the game last week was a no brainer once it became clear what happened. But now, regardless of what happens with Hamlin (and things look good for the guy to survive) the league has to move forward. I see folks online saying season should be cancelled or delayed until we know exactly what will happen with Hamlin. Which I have to ask…why?
I’ve seen talk about how the Bills shouldn’t play this year. Or not this week. Does anyone really believe that, especially given the great year the Bills having, that Hamlin or any other athlete who suffered any injury would want his team to not play? Who really is that benefiting? I’ve heard talk that playing any football this week is disrespectful. How? I also saw that people were losing their minds on the internet because the Bills signed a safety from the Jets PS and how that was ruthless?
From my opinion, the team and the league should support Hamlin with whatever he needs. But this is still a business and the league needs to continue. Players have died while on active rosters, players have been injured, lost loved ones in some cases the day before and choose to play.
What happened with Hamlin is a tragedy but tragedies are part of life. It sucks. Which brings me to my original question - what are the NFL/Bills supposed to do? Or what would you expect them to do at this point? I don’t understand how playing football is disrespectful to anyone.
I’m all for 8 playoff teams if it gets the Lions to the post season - however if the Lions beat GB and the 8th seed would put them in the league needs to review that further.
I meant for the league. People are saying no football should be played. Or that the Bills would be disrespecting him if they play.
Regarding that one game, there is no good answer. They can’t replay that game and make it fair to anyone. Double header isn’t happening. IMO they don’t have a good answer at all there.
The league has to choose which team forfeits or they have to declare a tie. There’s a schedule and trying to shoehorn a make-up game somewhere is perhaps worse than just taking a win away.
Personally I would just call it a tie and move on. Yeah, it screws some teams, but teams get screwed all the time.
For instance schedule imbalance is just something we’ve all come to accept. But we’ve played a much tougher schedule than the Chargers, Giants, Cowboys or Jags/Titans, but those teams are either in the playoffs or have a higher percentage chance of making it. If we’d had their schedules, we’d probably be in as well. But that’s not how the NFL works. Sometimes, teams get screwed.
If it’s the Bills (which would seem likely), well, they shouldn’t have lost to the Vikings. If they hadn’t everyone would be complaining that it’s the Chiefs getting screwed. You screw yourself in most cases.
The chances of them screwing over the team that Hamlin plays for IMO is very low. From a league image perspective, wouldn’t look good. PR department wouldn’t like that.
Probably just some twitter bots. How do you disrespect the guy by playing the game he loves!? I bet he would want them to play. It was a freak accident and the news is encouraging about his status.
Not making it political but I’ve noticed the major news channels have been covering it extensively….I wouldn’t be surprised if perhaps someone who isn’t really a sports person is posing that kind of question. I heard even the president got asked if football was too violent….
I have yet to see anybody suggest not playing football but i stay off of social media. But if they are, its a stupid idea, wont happen and i cant take them seriously.
I saw a proposal of the NFC wildcard games taking place next week with the Bills and Bengals playing next Thursday and the AFC Wildcard the following weekend with the 4 NFC teams having a bye.
Would probably mean no bye week before the superbowl but I have seen worse ideas.
Ideally the Bills Bengals game should just be a tie or declared void and their win percentage over 16 games used for play off seedings.
I don’t like the idea of doing both (no contest with win percentage). If its no contest than number of wins should rule the day. Only use percentage if they call it a tie.
CPR was done on the field in 1997, Lions vs Jets. They continued the game. Barry went on to get his 2,000 yards.
Shit happens. Carry on. They should have taken teams back to the locker room for a break and then come back out and played the game. Instead, they created a mess that they are trying to figure a way out of. Everyone is so afraid of getting cancelled that no one on TV/Radio wants to say anything that might get taken the wrong way. A bunch of cowards.
They try to figure out what exactly happened, but it could take weeks or months, maybe even years. It’s mostly speculation at this point.
Like getting hit in the chest between heart beats at just the right (wrong) time. If you break up a complete heart beat into fractions and say it’s greatest risk of this happening is during this 1/100th of a second of a complete beat. Wouldn’t we see this happening more often? There are 150+ tackles in a game and dozens more hard blocks.
I personally think it was a little more than just the timing and placement of the hit in relation to the heart beat. What else it is? Who knows. Hopefully they can figure it out but how can it be proved one way or another? Undiagnosed underlying condition? Definitely worth it to do what they can to find out. Just be patient. Can’t hold up the league for a result that may take a long time or one that may never be proven.
They made the absolute correct call to not resume the game. The dude died on the field. Could even make the same argument for Reggie brown. Aaron Glenn was there
This is not cancel culture, this is being a human.