Cincinnati, Ohio (WBEN) - Just two days after seeing Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapse and go into cardiac arrest on Monday night during their contest with the Cincinnati Bengals, it was a return to work for teams across the National Football League to prepare for the final week of the 2022 regular season.
This included the Bills, who elected to hold a walk-through practice in Orchard Park with no media availability following Wednesday's session. As Buffalo is still attempting to process all that transpired on Monday with Hamlin, the team needs to prepare for their Week 18 matchup with the New England Patriots at Highmark Stadium.
As for the Bengals, they, too, went back to work in Cincinnati, as they start to prepare for a visit from the Baltimore Ravens in a showdown that will, likely, determine the fate of the AFC North. However, the team will admit it will be tough to get back on the field for game action after experiencing what the Bills went through Monday night.
"When something like that happens, guys are still processing it. But we're doing our best to move on to the Ravens, and what we've got to do this week coming up," said Bengals defensive tackle D.J. Reader following practice on Wednesday,
"As unfortunate as it is, we've got a game to play on Sunday. As unusual as this week has been, it's business as usual from a football standpoint, unfortunately," said Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow. "I don't even really know what to say about it, because it's such a scary, emotional time, and guys still have a football game to play on Sunday. It's our job to get out there and execute, and play the game the way that we need to play it to go and win. It is what it is. We've had discussions as a team about what happened, and about where we're at going forward. It's where we're at."
When reflecting on all that took place against the Bills on Monday night, the players and coaches on the field felt the emotions of the moment with Hamlin collapsing to the field and needing CPR in order to help keep him alive as his heart had stopped.
"We were sitting on the sidelines, and things happened kind of quick," Reader said. "You see the ambulance come out and you just think, 'Oh man, maybe he's getting carted off.' And then you see their players coming out of the circle crying, and you immediately started realizing it's something different. As football players, we see injuries all the time, and it happens all the time in this sport. But when you see your other players that you've played with, that you've grinded with, you know those guys across from you, you see them starting to cry and you don't understand what's going on and it's taking a little bit longer than normal, that's when it really starts to sit in real that something's going on."
Once the players on the field for Cincinnati were able to grasp the extent of what was happening, it became a focus of players like Burrow and Reader - captains of the team - to support their brothers across the field.
"We were all feeling the same way. We were all there to support each other in that moment, because as scary as it was for them, personally, it was just a scary for me," Burrow said. "I didn't personally know Damar, but we're all brothers in this thing. We're all part of the same institution, playing this game that we love for each other. I was feeling the same way. I didn't know how to react to it. I just tried to go out there and show unity, show support and be around the people I cared about."
And the support for one another didn't just come on the field as Hamlin was being tended to, it came off the field and in the Buffalo locker room after the game was temporarily suspended for a while. The captains for the Bengals had all decided to walk down the tunnel together and join the Bills captains, while league officials figured out the fate of the contest that evening.
"We just told them we were there for their support. It's an emotional moment, especially in that locker room. That's somebody that they really care about, we all care about, but they've got a real connection with them," Reader said. "You bleed, sweat... somebody who you're really, really in with every day. So it was just all for our support, just knowing that we were praying for him. Just to go down there and be classy, showing that we care on this side. It's not just one of those things where we walk off that field and we don't care. It's a brotherhood, we're all fortunate enough to play in this league, and we never want to see anybody go out that way."
"We tried to do all we could. We went over there and saw him, and tried to give as much support as you can in a situation like that," Burrow said of the team captains' meeting in the locker room. "Nobody wanted to continue to play the game in a situation like that. I know how everybody would be feeling in our locker room if it was one of our guys, and I know how we were feeling and it was one of their guys. So it was a scary, emotional night."
As both the Bills and Bengals get ready to play on Sunday in Week 18, there is plenty of uncertainty as to a decision on when, or if the game will be made up. Monday's contest lasted just 9:02 into the first quarter with Cincinnati leading Buffalo by a 7-3 score.
While the NFL says a decision will likely be made on the future of that game in the next couple of days, players say they are in currently in the dark on that decision.
"I think that'd be tough, just scheduling-wise," Burrow said of the possibility of making up the game. "I think whatever Buffalo would want to do would be what we would want to do as well. We're behind them 100% and support them in whatever they would decide to do going forward."
As for Bengals head coach Zac Taylor, while he's got a job to get his team ready to face the Ravens on Sunday, he will even admit it's hard not to think about all the transpired and the work that went in to saving Hamlin's life on Monday.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with Damar Hamlin and his family and his loved ones and his teammates, the coaches, the entire Bills organization," said Taylor ahead of Wednesday's practice. "We've always had a great deal of respect for them. I think that's grown much deeper, obviously, with what we've all seen transpired. Certainly we're pulling for Damar, hoping for the most positive outlook, and looking forward to him seeing all the support that he's getting from his team, his community, people around the league, his family. That'll be a great day when he's able to see that."
Taylor opened his press conference on Wednesday by expressing his gratitude to a number of individuals on Monday from the medical personnel of both teams on-hand at Paycor Stadium to the medical professionals at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, the officials on the field for their handling of the situation, the fans, as well as the Bills organization.
Taylor also spoke highly of Bills head coach Sean McDermott on Wednesday and how he handled that situation with Hamlin and the rest of his team during an extremely emotional situation. After the ambulance carrying Hamlin ended up exiting the field, Taylor was seen walking across the field to the Bills' sideline to help ensure that both teams were on the same page with that comes next.
"I won't disclose any of the private conversations Sean and I had except for this: When I got over there, the first thing he said was, 'I need to be at the hospital with Damar, and I shouldn't be coaching this game.' That, to me, provides all the clarity. 'Unprecedent' is the word that gets thrown out a lot about this situation, because that's what it is, but in that moment, he really showed who he was. All his focus was just on Damar and being there for him, being there for his family at the hospital. And at that point, I think everything trended in the direction it need to trend, and the right decisions were made there. I really felt Sean McDermott led in that moment for his players. He was there for his players, he processed it the right way, which is incredibly difficult, and really helped us get to the solution that we needed to get to."
At one point before both teams took to the locker room for a temporary suspension of the game, ESPN had said the NFL was allowing both teams around five minutes to get their composure back before resuming play. At one point, Burrow was throwing a football around, looking as if he was warming up to take the field again.
As Burrow was throwing the ball around out of confusion for what was set to take place next, Taylor says he didn't feel there was any directive from officials or the league that guys were told to start warming up.
"It was just, 'Let's particularly give Buffalo space to process as a team,' because they had not done that. They had just been there for Damar," he explained. "We've been through this situation a million times where there's an injury on the field, if something happens on the field, and just the natural process is you give yourself a couple minutes. There's so much that happened that I can't even really recall. My process of remembering is that's really just what unfolded. There was no push for anything to happen. It was just let these moments play out and see what the next step is, as people get a chance to get their minds right. And ultimately, that's what led to the decision there."
In the couple of days since Hamlin's medical emergency, Taylor and the rest of the team has taken notice to the support given to Hamlin, his family and the Bills from not just those in Western New York or Cincinnati, but also around the football community.
"It's bigger than football. Obviously, it's taking care of people," Taylor said. "I think Cincinnati and Buffalo are very similar that way, just the communities and the way that the people are. I'm not out-and-about, I'm here, so I don't get to see all that. But I know what my wife tells me, I know what I've seen, and the just the outpouring of support has been incredible. It's not surprising."
"Just two communities that have been there for each other, and then on a larger scale, just the NFL community. You look at the other organizations, the players, the coaches, the fan bases, I think everybody has appropriately done what's needed to be done here to support Damar."
As for what's to come for his team, Taylor knows the focus has to now shift to the Ravens, while still thinking and praying for the best possible outcome for Hamlin.
"What we're doing as a team right now is you have to move forward to Baltimore, and we'll let those decisions take place amongst those who want to make them. All that's really in front of us right now is to get ready for Baltimore on Sunday," Taylor said.