It’s Week 17 on Football’s biggest stage, Monday Night Football. Two of the NFL’s best teams, the Buffalo Bills and Cincincatti Bengals are battling it out to keep their hopes alive for top seed in the AFC. The Bengals have jumped out to a 7-3 lead with about six minutes remaining in the first quarter.
Then something horrific happened. Bills safety Damar Hamlin, after making a very pedestrian-looking tackle, stood up, took a step to his right, and collapsed like a ragdoll.
Within minutes emergency medical staff members were on the field, administering nine minutes of CPR, and a defibrillator to the body of Hamlin. He was then rushed off the field, unresponsive, in an ambulance to a local hospital.
The air that had come over Paycor Stadium in Cincinatti was eerie. Players, fans, and coaches alike, from both sides, were completely and utterly disturbed by what they had just seen. Yet somehow, word had gotten out that the NFL had notified the involved parties that play would resume in five minutes.