Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni is as shaken as everyone else by what happened Monday night in Cincinnati.
In the first quarter of the Buffalo Bills' game against the Bengals, Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field after a tackle of Bengals wideout Tee Higgins. Medics administered CPR before taking Hamlin off the field in an ambulance.
The Bills said overnight that he had suffered a cardiac arrest, his heartbeat had been restored, and he is in critical condition. The game was indefinitely postponed.
It was a horrifying scene, one that was a painful reminder of the dangers that professional football presents. It came just a few days after the Eagles had a scare of their own, when defensive end Josh Sweat was carted off the field with a neck injury during Sunday’s loss to the Saints.
The 25-year-old sustained the injury in a collision with Saints fullback Adam Prentice, and was face down for a few minutes before being put on a stretcher.
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After he was released from the hospital, Sweat said on Twitter he expects to play again this season. But Sirianni said on "Angelo Cataldi and the Morning Team" that the Hamlin injury now puts everything in perspective for him.
“You come back to work, and you have a loss that you’re really upset about, and you’re thinking about that, and then something like that happens at night and puts everything in perspective," Sirianni said. "These players put their bodies on the line, and I know we’ve got some guys that know him, the first thought obviously is for the kid, that he’s OK, and then you want to check on your guys that know him.
“A lot of things go through your mind. You think about Josh Sweat and how fortunate he is that he was able to get up and be OK. It’s tough to watch. I think my exact words were that I was just kind of in shock. You don’t see that very often. You don’t see that happen in this game very often.
“It’s a violent sport, as we know, but I just thought about everything – how you would lead the team in that matter and everything. So many things go through your mind there, and at the end of the day I just hope at the end of the day Damar is OK and the people close to him are OK and that he’ll fight through this and get up from this."