I’ll say it, since everyone who matters is too scared to be cancelled or labeled a heartless asshole by the mob of virtue signaling morons who probably never even watch football:
That Bills/Bengals game on Monday night should have been played to completion. Failing that, one team should have been forced to officially forfeit the game so a result could be put in the books.
Of course, the instant Sean McDermott forfeited, I would have considered him one of the biggest pussies in sports history. You just threw away your first-round bye – which gives you a FAR better chance in the playoffs – and greatly reduced your chances of winning it all…which is what the entire team has been killing itself for over the last four months. If I was Hamlin and I woke up from my coma and found out my team had thrown away its Superbowl chances because of my injury, I’d be pretty pissed off. I expect that kind of pussy move from a head coach in his 20s – but McDermnott is 48 years old. He should know better.
Did George Washington quit the war when a few of his guys died gruesome deaths? Fuck no. He got them all up in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve, crossed the Delaware in horrific conditions, and slit the throats of the British mercenaries while they slept…and I thank God he did it.
Other questions:
- Would the game have been cancelled if a fan fell from a balcony and died?
- Would they cancel the game if the special teams coach went into cardiac arrest?
- Would they stop selling beer if a beer guy collapsed and had a heart attack?
- If you answered no for any of those things, does that mean that Damar Hamlin’s life matters more than some guy working for tips? Does death only matter when we witness it and know the person?
- If the game isn’t played then how will the Bengals and Bills agree to an outcome, considering their future prospects change so much as a result?
Hell, just a few days before this MNF tragedy, some poor bastard was sucked into a jet engine in Alabama. I cannot image a more gruesome death to witness. Did American Airlines send the entire workforce home? Did they tell everyone at the airport “sorry, all flights are stopped today while we sit here and mourn this poor bastard”? Fuck no. You just know that within the hour, the people that were inconvenienced by this were bitching about how they were going to miss their connection at DFW. Many of those exact same assholes are clutching their pearls at “insensitive bastards” who ask the logical questions I’m asking now.
Joe Theismann’s leg injury in 1985 (ALSO on Monday Night Football) was FAR more disturbing and gruesome than Hamlin’s collapse – but THAT game continued after six paramedics carted Joe off the field.
Hamlin’s odds of living don’t increase if the game is cancelled, and there is absolutely a need for a discussion of the repercussions for skipping the game entirely. That game was arguably THE BIGGEST game of the season and a lot is at stake.
The knee jerk reaction to cancel everything and vilify anyone that asked questions for being indifferent to people dying, was eerily similar to the first days of COVID. So was the idea that some jobs are essential (cops) and must continue after an employee dies, while others are not (NFL). Guess we didn’t learn anything from that mistake.
Newsflash – you don’t get to pretend that you value human life over entertainment if you watch the NFL. The average NFL player dies 20 years younger than the average American for a variety of reasons. The hits to the head and the body obviously play a part, but so does size. NFL lineman must be 300 pounds to play in the league. This is not a healthy or natural body weight, but they get that big ON PURPOSE! A 240 pound high school tackle immediately gets put on a weight increase program the second they sign with a D1 college. Andrew Luck left the game in the prime of his career because he valued his health more than football.
But players have free will and so do we. This is the social contract we have created with the NFL – players agree to be gladiators and drastically increase the chances of health risks in exchange for lots of money and fame. We agree to pay them by buying tickets, merchandise, and watching on TV. What happened Monday night was a visual reality of that, which is why it hit so hard. But no one says they should stop playing games when Junior Seau, Demaryius Thomas, or Tony Siragusa die young.
No one even noticed when 38 year old former Jaguars lineman Uche Nwaneri died a couple days ago after collapsing in his house.
All of those men would be alive if they didn’t play in the NFL. We enjoyed watching them play, and they did so by choice. You’re not a bad person for doing so, just as you’re not a bad person for talking about football while a player is in a hospital fighting for his life.
Now go back to watching NFL players slowly kill themselves next Sunday and don’t bat an eye when they die 10 years from now.
