Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

I’m going to express an unpopular opinion about all of this: The rest of the Bills players were being selfish for not finishing that game. They made the incident about themselves by deciding it was too much for them to proceed. At that point, Hamlin didn’t care if they played or not but uncounted thousands of people lost revenue that day because of their selfish reaction. At that point, you play the game for Hamlin. You don’t quit for yourself.

I....don't even know where to begin. Good luck with that take.

They need to just finish the game, while moving the playoffs up a week ... Just eliminate the extra week before the SB

Imagine witnessing a potentially life-threatening incident at your place of employment and then having others debate on when you should resume working.

I think they were right in stopping the game...players weren't in the right frame of mind and distracted players are more likely to get hurt. Don't agree with the decision to just flat-out cancel it. They could've pushed the postseason back a week while letting the teams pick up where they left off in a rescheduled game.

A guy died at my father's place of work back in the 1970s. Doing the job. I don't think they closed down, but they had other businesses dependent on them being open, so I don't know that closing would have been practical. Dad had PTSD about it, but I don't think closing would have changed anything there.

A woman had a headache at work, went home and died there of an aneurysm the same day. But she was off site when she died, I think we just found out about it.

A friend committed suicide before work one day. Toxic work environment, he was being harassed. He worked in IT, a job that can certainly be tone deaf to personnel issues under the wrong circumstances which he had. I don't know how many of his co-workers came to his funeral.

I guess the NFL can't cancel games every time someone is carted off and having some questions about that. NFL probably can't leave it up to the players if they want to keep playing every time that happens.

I guess the NFL can't cancel games every time someone is carted off and having some questions about that. NFL probably can't leave it up to the players if they want to keep playing every time that happens

^^^this. As much as I believe cancelling was the right thing to do. I worry about the precedent this sets.

I believe they did the right thing, players' minds of both teams were on Hamlin's health and were very worried and playing was not an option. However, I think they should have redeschuled and complete the game for next Thursday and move the Bills and Bengals playoff games to Tuesday or Wednesday. Remember that in 2020 they move a lot of games to every day of the week and no game was canceled due to the COVID pandemic.

ChrisBabcock wrote:

I guess the NFL can't cancel games every time someone is carted off and having some questions about that. NFL probably can't leave it up to the players if they want to keep playing every time that happens

^^^this. As much as I believe cancelling was the right thing to do. I worry about the precedent this sets.

This is the bottom line. There was a clear lack of leadership from the head coach on up to the commissioner on this one. From all appearances, it is the Bills players who forced the commissioner's hands. Goodell should have told them they would forfeit the game if they did not play. Give them 30 minutes to calm down, pray, and regroup, and then dig deep and find the resolve to win it for Hamlin.

Now, what happens the next time a player goes down unconscious? And what happens when teams do NOT suspend a game when a player goes down and it's upsetting? Do we not do hard things anymore?

It's kind of odd that a suspended game really hasn't happened for this or some other reason. Like an earthquake. There was an earthquake before a World Series game, easily could have been during the game. Or a stadium is unsafe.

In this case both teams are going to the playoffs and are sort of unmotivated to play the game. But there could be other scenarios where other teams' playoff standings could be hurt by not playing the game. So the NFL should probably tighten up their procedures, they're likely working on it as I write this.