NFL explains slow decision to postpone Bills-Bengals game

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has explained why the NFL took a long time before deciding to postpone a game where Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed due to cardiac arrest last week.

In a January 2 game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Hamlin suddenly fell to the ground and had to be resuscitated. However, the league appeared to be more concerned about finishing the game than Hamlin’s health. The NFL reportedly told Bills and Bengals players that they had five minutes to warm up and resume the game after the incident.

Troy Vincent, NFL executive VP of football operations, commented on the incident, denying the rumors.

“I’m not sure where that came from. We never, frankly, it never crossed our mind to talk about warming up to resume play,” Vincent said. “That’s ridiculous. That’s insensitive. And that’s not a place that we should ever be in.”

‘That comes with a lot of discussion’

The game was ultimately postponed, but it took almost an hour for the league to announce the decision. Goodell claimed that the league had needed time to discuss the situation with players and coaches from both teams before making any move.

In an interview with 98.5 The Sports Hub, Goodell admitted that the league had looked toward resuming the game but later realized that Hamlin’s condition was serious, so the game was postponed.

“That comes with a lot of discussion. The coaches, the players, they are hearing from their players, you want to get all that information,” Goodell said.

“A standard practice would be to resume play, but when you get feedback that it may not be appropriate, that’s when Troy made the decision to suspend play, which was the right decision, and allow everyone to go back and ‘let’s gather ourselves and get more information,’ which was clear we needed to do.”