The Patriots have a critical football game Sunday afternoon in Buffalo.
No, it’s obviously not life and death, but New England’s season is pretty much on the line in the win-and-you’re-in situation in terms of postseason play.
But for much of this week that fact had to be muted if not forgotten.
Because in light of the horrifying scene last Monday night in Cincinnati that left Bills safety Damar Hamlin in cardiac arrest on the turf at Paycor Stadium, football games and their outcomes were rightfully pushed into their proper perspective. Critical was suddenly a description of a player’s condition, not a football game.
Those who dared to take a too-soon, too-frank look at what Hamlin’s shocking situation did to the rest of the NFL season and swiftly oncoming playoffs were either shunned or shouted down.
Now, though, thanks to Hamlin’s remarkable trend toward recovery, it’s OK to care about football games once again. He made that clear.
“Did we win?” That was apparently one of the first orders of business, first questions that Hamlin had when the still intubated safety gained consciousness and communicated with his doctors via writing two days after his life was in serious question in front of millions of TV viewers on Monday Night Football.
Hamlin’s life-and-death situation rightfully overshadowed what was a big football game between the Bills and the Bengals. Super Bowl contenders with MVP-caliber QBs were supposed to be battling it out in the penultimate week of regular season play with playoff ramifications across the conference.
For a couple days, none of that mattered. It couldn’t matter. Not with Hamlin fighting for his life and teammates, opponents, fans and empathetic human beings everywhere alike fighting to process what they had seen.
“I think every update that we get in the locker room, everyone’s super excited to hear that each time he’s doing better and we’re all super excited. Honestly, that’s pretty wild,” Patriots quarterback Mac Jones said of Hamlin asking about the score of Monday’s game. “You can tell that he’s a competitor, right? And that’s the first thing he’s asking and all that. I think that’s who we are as people. We love the game of football.”
And that’s OK. It’s not a mutually exclusive proposition.
Caring about whether the Patriots win or lose on Sunday against the Bills doesn’t mean you don’t care about Hamlin.
Conversely, caring about the health and future of Hamlin doesn’t mean you can no longer care about relatively meaningless things tackles, touchdowns and final scores.
It’s even fair to question whether we care about football games more than we should. That’s a different debate for a different day.
Mario Hamlin, Damar’s father, addressed his son’s Buffalo teammates this week via FaceTime. He gave an update of his son’s impressive progress and recovery. According to Bills’ QB Josh Allen, Mario Hamlin also “demanded” that Buffalo “charge forward” to the best of the team’s abilities, which we all expect are championship-caliber.
“To know that that’s what he wants, that’s what his dad wants, I think guys are excited to get out there,” Allen said of the Bills returning to some sense of on-field normalcy and Super Bowl pursuits Sunday afternoon against the Patriots.
It’s a big game. A critical AFC East battle that, prior to last Monday might be described as the Patriots fighting for their playoff lives.
It’s different now.
If you don’t care quite as much about this season finale meeting between Buffalo and New England as you previously would have, that’s understandable.
But, if you do very much care about what happens to the Patriots Sunday afternoon at Highmark Stadium, that’s OK too.
Damar Hamlin and his family made that clear.
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