Jerry Jones has been around football a long time, but he had yet to witness something like what unfolded in Cincinnati on Monday night.
Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest in the first quarter of their game against the Bengals, which ultimately was suspended. Hamlin needed CPR on the field, and was eventually taken by ambulance to a hospital where he is in critical condition.
It was a terrifying moment, one that the Dallas Cowboys owner said he had never experienced before.
“It’s concern for Damar’s family, his loved ones, his teammates, that entire Bills organization and really the Bengals, as well, they were so much a part of it there," Jones said Tuesday in his weekly appearance on "Shan and RJ." "It was certainly the most different thing that I’ve ever watched relative just to just the sincere outpouring of interest in Damar’s family’s well-being, and of course Damar.
“It was special to see him have available the emergency care that he had, and as it turns out and as we know more, that care could have very well been a difference-maker. But we don’t know that at all, and I don’t have any data on his medical condition. But I’m so proud of everyone involved, because the only thing that was of interest to anybody was his well-being and his care and the well-being of his teammates and everybody involved.
“It was something to be real sensitive to, and I’m talking about not his well-being as much as I am just the well-being of everybody that is concerned about him. It’s great to know they're all getting the attention and care they deserve under those circumstances.”
It took the NFL nearly an hour to officially suspend the game. The time to make such an obvious decision has been widely condemned, but Jones declined to criticize the league’s handling.
“I never got the feeling that there was but one thing in everybody’s mind there, and that was his care, the sensitivity of his teammates, the sensitivity of the players on the field with him,” Jones said. “Just a complete direction of concern and direction of importance to his health.”
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