"It's ridiculous and insensitive" – Mike Florio believes NFL's VP was negligent in dealing with Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest
After the Damar Hamlin injury, it was reported that the NFL wanted to resume play after just five minutes of warmup. After the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals players witnessed a traumatic event, that was more than likely not possible.
NFL VP Troy Vincent denounced the claim. However, other reports suggested that there was at least some truth to the idea that the NFL wanted them to resume after Hamlin was taken away in an ambulance.
"Pro Football Talk" analyst Mike Florio believes the NFL originally wanted to follow the standard protocol but that this was anything but a standard injury:
"This is standard protocol, whether it's an injury that shuts the game down for a minimum period of time, whether issues, games that are just delayed by the kickoff because the game before it has gone over and they're on the same network or a different network, they don't want to overlap standalone games. That five minute thing is not uncommon."
Despite Vincent saying otherwise, Florio believes the five-minute warmup wasn't completely made up:
"ESPN did not just pull 5 minutes out of the air. John Perry, Joe Buck did not just yes at 5 minutes. They were told that. Where it became problematic was when executive VP of football operations, Troy Vincent... acted as if somebody had basically pulled it out of thin air. I don't know where that came from. It's ridiculous and insensitive."
Warmup rules are often used, but there's no way this type of injury could adhere to the normal regulations:
"They lapsed into the standard protocol until they realized this one is too serious. Now, on top of that, there may be some fascinating details that come out at some point as to who said what to whom and when."
Ultimately, the league postponed the game until further notice.
Damar Hamlin injury: What is the NFL going to do now?
The NFL faces a conundrum with Damar Hamlin hospitalized. The two teams involved may not want to play another down of football for a long time, understandably so.
However, this was a Week 17 game between two of the top seeds in the AFC. It's hard to imagine the NFL being able to have the postseason without some result being applied to this game.
For now, they're weighing all options and deciding what to do moving forward.