NFL Week 17 -- Prayers for Damar Hamlin

[tapintoamerica]

And he might get cut. Because he was a sixth-round draft pick.
I'm happy his charity providing Christmas toys for Pittsburgh-area youth has taken in enough donations to ensure no kid will ever go without some celebration, but Mr. Hamlin and his family are going to need -- and deserve -- a lot of cash. If his career is over, it will have been cut short by at least a year or two and maybe $1 million in after-tax earnings. And because he hasn't been around a lot, he won't necessarily qualify for the sort of pension he'll need. I remember reading there's a loophole in cases such as his. To some extent, I understand why owners aren't going to volunteer to cut him any breaks. It opens a Pandora's Box of sorts. But they've got be able to do something here.

 

[BTExpress]

He'll be cleared to play before Tagovailoa.

 

[tapintoamerica]

He'll be cleared to play before Tagovailoa.

Know what else is disturbing? Somebody in Vegas is putting that prop bet together.

 

[BTExpress]

Hamlin had the perfect unfortunate confluence of events and timing to suffer cardiac arrest. . . and was in the perfect company of emergency personnel to survive it with minimal damage.

 

[poindexter]

Still trying to figure out the orgin of that "players have five minutes to warm up and play will resume" thing.

What does it matter? Troy Vincent said it didn't happen and he's not in the habit of making excuses for the league. I'd be willing to bet some Bengals PR flack or football ops guy passed that along to the announcers and it's taken on a life of its own. Facts remains, it didn't happen. Can we move on to more important topics, such as the kid's life?

Bills, Bengals led the way after Hamlin collapsed

The team official placed blame for the league's vacillation squarely on Vincent.

"The league screws this s--- up because Troy Vincent screws this stuff up," the official said. "That's the wrong person in the wrong position at the absolute wrong time. ... He wants to be the hero, but he will never take accountability. That's him to a T."

/////
In an interview, Buck said he was "surprised" to hear Vincent had said that the information about the intended resumption of the game did not come from the league office.

"If what I said on national TV with the eyes of the world watching was wrong in the view of the league, I would have been corrected -- immediately," Buck said. "And I was not."

Four separate times in a span of 45 minutes, Buck indicated that the game would resume.

No one from the league ever asked for a retraction. "We were on the air for another 40 minutes and no one corrected the idea that the game would resume," Buck said. "No one."


"I can't imagine what was going on in that room and the different scenarios and the heartache in that command center," Buck continued. "It's unprecedented, what we all witnessed and went through. Nothing is going to be perfect. I just know that we went with the information we were given by the league. I went on the air with a piece of information by John Parry through an open line of communication with the league that they gave us in real time."

 

[Batman]

And he might get cut. Because he was a sixth-round draft pick.
I'm happy his charity providing Christmas toys for Pittsburgh-area youth has taken in enough donations to ensure no kid will ever go without some celebration, but Mr. Hamlin and his family are going to need -- and deserve -- a lot of cash. If his career is over, it will have been cut short by at least a year or two and maybe $1 million in after-tax earnings. And because he hasn't been around a lot, he won't necessarily qualify for the sort of pension he'll need. I remember reading there's a loophole in cases such as his. To some extent, I understand why owners aren't going to volunteer to cut him any breaks. It opens a Pandora's Box of sorts. But they've got be able to do something here.

Assuming he can't play again, if the Bills don't find him some cushy, well-paid job for life in the organization as a community ambassador, then they're just plain stupid. By all accounts this seems like the kind of person you want representing your organization. What's more is that, horrible as this all has been, he seems to recognize it as an opportunity to spread some positivity in the world. The Bills need to let him do it under their umbrella.
Maybe he doesn't make the same seven- or eight-figure player salary he was headed toward in a few years, but there's no reason he should ever have to worry about a paycheck as long as the Bills are in business.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

Assuming he can't play again, if the Bills don't find him some cushy, well-paid job for life in the organization as a community ambassador, then they're just plain stupid. By all accounts this seems like the kind of person you want representing your organization. What's more is that, horrible as this all has been, he seems to recognize it as an opportunity to spread some positivity in the world. The Bills need to let him do it under their umbrella.
Maybe he doesn't make the same seven- or eight-figure player salary he was headed toward in a few years, but there's no reason he should ever have to worry about a paycheck as long as the Bills are in business.

Bills owner Terry Pegula is a guy who once decided his alma mater, Penn State, could use a Big 10 hockey program. So he financed the entire goddamned thing, all the way down to a brand-new hockey arena. My point is, it's not like he, or any NFL owner for that matter, is hurting for cash.

 

[BTExpress]

And his daughter is up to No. 3 in the WTA rankings.

 

[playthrough]

Bills, Bengals led the way after Hamlin collapsed

The team official placed blame for the league's vacillation squarely on Vincent.

"The league screws this s--- up because Troy Vincent screws this stuff up," the official said. "That's the wrong person in the wrong position at the absolute wrong time. ... He wants to be the hero, but he will never take accountability. That's him to a T."

/////
In an interview, Buck said he was "surprised" to hear Vincent had said that the information about the intended resumption of the game did not come from the league office.

"If what I said on national TV with the eyes of the world watching was wrong in the view of the league, I would have been corrected -- immediately," Buck said. "And I was not."

Four separate times in a span of 45 minutes, Buck indicated that the game would resume.

No one from the league ever asked for a retraction. "We were on the air for another 40 minutes and no one corrected the idea that the game would resume," Buck said. "No one."


"I can't imagine what was going on in that room and the different scenarios and the heartache in that command center," Buck continued. "It's unprecedented, what we all witnessed and went through. Nothing is going to be perfect. I just know that we went with the information we were given by the league. I went on the air with a piece of information by John Parry through an open line of communication with the league that they gave us in real time."

There's no doubt that the league offices wanted to keep going with the teevee show. Goodell will face more questions about it at his annual Super Bowl dog and pony show and he'll continue to peddle b.s. answers.

 

[poindexter]

I think the proof that the league office was pushing the game to resume is what Joe Buck says: Buck told tv viewers for 40 minutes that the game was going to resume, and ESPN got zero pushback from the league.

 

[MileHigh]

I think the proof that the league office was pushing the game to resume is what Joe Buck says: Buck told tv viewers for 40 minutes that the game was going to resume, and ESPN got zero pushback from the league.

That's exactly right.

 

[User 149557]

Bills owner Terry Pegula is a guy who once decided his alma mater, Penn State, could use a Big 10 hockey program. So he financed the entire goddamned thing, all the way down to a brand-new hockey arena. My point is, it's not like he, or any NFL owner for that matter, is hurting for cash.

“Some of us don’t have that kind of money!” - Brett Favre

 

[micropolitan guy]

Assuming he can't play again, if the Bills don't find him some cushy, well-paid job for life in the organization as a community ambassador, then they're just plain stupid. By all accounts this seems like the kind of person you want representing your organization. What's more is that, horrible as this all has been, he seems to recognize it as an opportunity to spread some positivity in the world. The Bills need to let him do it under their umbrella.
Maybe he doesn't make the same seven- or eight-figure player salary he was headed toward in a few years, but there's no reason he should ever have to worry about a paycheck as long as the Bills are in business.

They have already agreed to honor his full four-year rookie contract, that's worth about four million. I suspect they will find some sort of community services role for him if he is interested.

In 1980 or thereabouts the Bills had a safety named Jeff Nixon, a potentially outstanding, HOF-level player with 11 interceptions in his first 1.5 seasons, who tore up his knee in Year 2 or Year 3 and never played more than 2-3 games afterward. They took care of him, I think he remained in Buffalo and went to work for the city.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

 

[MileHigh]

OK, yeah, that was pretty good.

 

[Webster]

It was, and perhaps I need to temper my cynicism, but part of me feels like everything about his recovery has been stage managed by the NFL from a PR playbook

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

It was, and perhaps I need to temper my cynicism, but part of me feels like everything about his recovery has been stage managed by the NFL from a PR playbook

There is nothing the NFL can't turn into a shameless & cynical self-promotional tool.