"Forget about what's fair or unfair" - Skip Bayless tries covering his act following insensitive Damar Hamlin tweet
Over the last week, Damar Hamlin has been everyone's singular focus, but as only Skip Bayless can, he tried his best to distract from the conversation. When Damar Hamlin was down on the field after his cardiac arrest, he was tweeting about playoff considerations, something that was furthest from anyone's mind at the time.
If caused him a lot of grief, with players past and present putting him in place and telling him to sort out his priorities. Following the incident on Monday Night Football, he was left to talk to his viewers all alone on Undisputed on Tuesday. He was told by his bosses to clarify his tweet and co-host Shannon Sharpe did not turn up. When he did turn up on Wednesday, he contended that Skip Bayless should take down his offending tweet, to which Bayless vehemently objected, derailing the conversation.
No doubt the NFL is considering postponing the rest of this game - but how? This late in the season, a game of this magnitude is crucial to the regular-season outcome ... which suddenly seems so irrelevant.
Now, he seems to be trying to get back into everyone's good graces. Following the Cincinnati Bengals' coin toss touchdown celebration against the Baltimore Ravens, Skip Bayless seemed to be trying too hard to disavow his past actions. He sent out a tweet saying that nothing matters but Damar Hamlin's health. He prefaced it, saying,
"Forget about what's fair or unfair"
It was the antithesis of his previous sentiment.
I have no sympathy for the angry Bengals & Joe Mixon's "anti coin flip" TD celebration. As I said Monday night, NOTHING MATTERS BUT DAMAR HAMLIN'S HEALTH. NOTHING LIKE THIS HAD EVER HAPPENED BEFORE. SO FORGET ABOUT WHAT'S FAIR OR UNFAIR IN THE PLAYOFFS. COIN FLIPS ARE IRRELEVANT.
Why were people expecting Skip Bayless to support the Bengals with respect to Damar Hamlin's situation?
As it turns out, the cancelation of the NFL game between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals did not just cause Skip Bayless to think about playoff considerations. The Bengals themselves were not expecting to be put in that position.
As we came to know this week, recognizing the gravity of Damar Hamlin's situation, they were willing to temporarily suspend the game. However, they expected the game to go ahead as they were still in with a shout for the first overall seed. Additionally, the NFL not only canceled the game, they said that if the Ravens won today's game against the Bengals today, there would be a coin-toss to determine home-field advantage despite Cincinnati having clinched the AFC North because of the canceled game. That possibility was mocked by Cincinnati today after scoring a touchdown.
This is a top-3 TD celebration this year. Joe Mixon showing how Bengals feel about the coin toss scenario — and with 17-0 lead it doesn’t look like they’ll have to worry about heads or tails today. https://t.co/bJHhzUQXvq
As it turned out, all such considerations were rendered moot. The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Las Vegas Raiders to clinch the overall first seed. The Cincinnati Bengals defeated the Baltimore Ravens to clinch the AFC North without a tie at the top of the division and secure home-field advantage. Most importantly, Damar Hamlin showed signs of positive recovery, to everyone's relief and gratitude.