Early Tuesday morning, NFL executive V.P. of football operations Troy Vincent drew a line in the sand as to the notion that anyone from the league expressed an intention to resume Monday night’s Bills-Bengals game, after the serious health situation that occurred regarding Bills safety Damar Hamlin. On Wednesday afternoon, Vincent dug that line even deeper.
Vincent said this, regarding his comments from the prior conference call: “I was asked a question about this ‘return to play.’ I feel like I snapped, or I was hasty in my answer. But I just want to be clear. Just that suggestion alone was inappropriate, it was insensitive, and frankly it lacked both empathy and compassion for Damar’s situation, who is still in the woods and is fighting for his life this day. It lacked complete and -- it was just so insensitive to think we were even thinking about returning to play. I just wanted to share that because it came up, and I think there’s been a little bit of discussion. I don’t know who said it and I really don’t care.”
He should care, frankly, because ESPN didn’t pull its repeated commentary that the Bills-Bengals game would resume after a five-minute warmup period out of thin air. Apparently, Westwood One had the same information.
This wasn’t a talking head suggesting that the game should resume. This was factual information passed along by someone, presumably from the league, that the game would resume.
These comments give the story legs. They create more interest. Reporters sense the inconsistencies, and they become curious about resolving them. It’s human nature.
And it sparks intrigue as to how the league went from considering the game would continue to deciding it wouldn’t.
Again, ESPN didn’t make it up. ESPN has pointed, as tactfully as possible, to the league as the source for the information.
A high-level source with one of the NFL’s teams said that the five-minute warmup period has been used in the past for unexpected delays in play. It’s possible that, before fully realizing the gravity of the Damar Hamlin situation, someone mentioned this basic protocol to ESPN and/or Westwood One. If that person didn’t know how serious things were for Damar Hamlin, how can it be inappropriate, insensitive, or lacking in empathy or compassion to invoke standard operating procedures?
That’s a very reasonable explanation. The fact that the official explanation has unfolded far differently makes a reasonable person wonder whether there’s something more to the story.
