ESPN Stands by Report That NFL Wanted to Restart Bills Game After Damar Hamlin’s Collapse

Buffalo Bills players huddle and pray after teammate Damar Hamlin #3 collapsed on the field after making a tackle against the Cincinnati Bengals during the first quarter at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Jan. 2, 2023. Dylan Buell/Getty Images

ESPN said that it stands by its report that the NFL was planning to restart the Buffalo Bills–Cincinnati Bengals game after Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field and suffered a cardiac arrest on Monday night.

After Hamlin’s collapse, ESPN reported during its “Monday Night Football” telecast that after Hamlin was taken off the field during the game’s first quarter, play would resume and that both teams were provided a 5-minute warm-up notice. The game was instead postponed, and the NFL issued a statement on Tuesday that it will not resume this week.

An NFL executive, meanwhile, said hours after the game that the league said it never considered resuming the game. After ESPN reported that play would be resumed, a number of fans and social media users expressed anger due to the severity of Hamlin’s condition. The Bills player remains hospitalized in critical condition as of Wednesday, family members said.

“We never, frankly, it never crossed our mind to talk about warming up to resume play,” said Troy Vincent, NFL executive vice president of football operations, in a news conference, according to reports. “That’s ridiculous. It’s insensitive. And that’s not a place that that we should ever be in.”

Vincent added that “ the only thing that we asked was that [referee] Shawn [Smith] communicate with both head coaches to make sure they had the proper time inside the locker room to discuss what they felt like was best ... so I’m not sure where that came from.” The “five-minute warmup never crossed my mind, personally. And I was the one . . . that was communicating with the [NFL] commissioner,” Vincent added.

After Hamlin was taken to the hospital on Monday, ESPN announcer Joe Buck said on the air that the teams were told they will have 5 minutes to warm up before play would be resumed. Buck said that information came from ESPN rules expert John Parry, who he said was communicating with NFL officials. ESPN also showed Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow throwing passes to other players as if he were warming up.

“The two head coaches, you can see, got together. And they’ll have five minutes to warm up,” said Buck at one point. “As we said, they’ve been given five minutes to quote-unquote to get ready to go back to playing, that’s the word we get from the league and the word we get from down on the field but nobody’s moving,” he would say moments later.

Buffalo Bills players react after teammate Damar Hamlin #3 was injured against the Cincinnati Bengals during the first quarter at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Jan. 2, 2023. Kirk Irwin/Getty Images

“Then, when we got the update that within five minutes, these players were gonna start playing football again, we saw Zac Taylor live walk across the field to Sean McDermott,” Buck also said.

And ESPN’s rules expert John Parry said during the telecast: “Just talked with New York in the command center. The situation has risen to a point where they want to give both teams an opportunity to go back into the locker room, regroup themselves, and so the game has been temporarily suspended.”

In a statement, ESPN said it stands by the on-air comments that the teams were given time to warm up and there were plans to resume the game.

“There was constant communication in real time between ESPN and league and game officials,” the network said. “As a result of that, we reported what we were told in the moment and immediately updated fans as new information was learned. This was an unprecedented, rapidly evolving circumstance. All night long, we refrained from speculation.”

Meanwhile, Buck told the New York Times on Tuesday that the five-minute warm-up information was produced by Parry, who has “an open line of communication with the league office in New York.”

“It is our obligation to give the information we are provided by the NFL in real time as we get it,” Buck said. “That’s our job at that time. That’s all we can go with.”

Later, in a statement, the NFL confirmed the Bills–Bengals game was postponed. No further details were provided.

“The NFL has made no decision regarding the possible resumption of the game at a later date,” the league’s statement said. “The league has not made any changes to the Week 18 regular season schedule. We will continue to provide additional information as it becomes available.”

The Epoch Times has contacted the NFL for comment.