A Monday Night Football matchup between two of the top teams in the National Football League was put on hold after a player for the Buffalo Bills suffered a cardiac arrest on the field.
“Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest following a hit in our game versus the Bengals,” the Buffalo Bills organization said in a statement. “His heartbeat was restored on the field and he was transferred to the UC Medical Center for further testing and treatment. He is currently sedated and listed in critical condition.”
Video replays showed Hamlin make a hard tackle on Bengals receiver Tee Higgins with about 6:15 left in the game’s first quarter at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati.
Hamlin, 24, was seen getting back to his feet after making the tackle and then almost immediately collapsing backward with the full force of his body coming down onto the turf.
An ambulance at the stadium hurriedly rushed to Hamlin while his teammates and opponents circled around him.
At one point, according to the game’s broadcast, paramedics administered CPR on the player and provided him with oxygen. Joe Buck, the game’s play-by-play announcer, described the CPR as taking place for “many minutes.”
He was eventually loaded into the ambulance and driven to an area hospital after remaining on the field for nearly ten minutes.
Players on both sidelines were visibly shaken, many in tears, as they watched their colleague be carted away. The game’s broadcast crews and analysts were equally stunned.
After the field was cleared, Bills head coach Sean McDermott and Bengals head coach Zac Taylor had a prolonged discussion with the game’s officiating crew.
After several minutes, both teams returned to their respective locker rooms. The game’s officiating crews said the game was temporarily suspended, while the game’s broadcast team said each team would have five minutes to regroup before returning to the field.
The stoppage, however, continued long past those five minutes, with neither team leaving their locker room.
Both coaches were seen meeting with officials for a second time in the stadium tunnel outside the Bills locker room.
For nearly an hour, it remained unclear if the game would go on as planned. Buck said the decision to continue the game would ultimately come down to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Just after 7 p.m., more than an hour after Hamlin went down on the field, the game’s broadcast team announced that play would be suspended for the rest of the evening.
A statement from the league said that Goodell was in contact with the NFL Players Union, and the two sides agreed the best course of action would be to suspend play for the evening.
It was unclear if the game would be rescheduled or canceled entirely, but those details were apparently going to be sorted out in the coming hours.
Hamlin, the NFL said, is currently listed in critical condition.
Jordon Rooney, Hamlin’s friend and his marketing representative, provided an update on his condition on Twitter.
“His vitals are back to normal and they have put him to sleep to put a breathing tube down his throat. They are currently running tests,” Rooney wrote in a tweet.
Hamlin is a second-year pro with Buffalo after being selected in the 6th round of the 2021 NFL Draft out of the University of Pittsburgh.
He has played in every game of the 2022 season, including 13 starts for Buffalo, according to NFL.com.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
