ESPN Story paints a little different light on Hamlin situation

[Soonerpeace]

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/35393227/how-bills-bengals-led-way-damar-hamlin-collapsed

[Earendil]

That's a spicy article. I think we all knew that's what happened, but it's interesting to see it backed up.

[lacesout87]

Good read. I completely agree with what Joe Buck said. If the league took any issue with what he was saying on air, he would have been corrected immediately.

[Interceptor]

And there it is right there:

In our mind there was nothing to be discussed. ... If they would have said, 'If you leave you're forfeiting the game,' we're still leaving."

[Graphicguy]

Bengals and the Bills did the right thing. Troy Vincent sounds like a “Richard”.

Also caught Pat Macafee’s pre game show before the National Championship last night. He was not complimentary about how some Bengals fans acted in the aftermath of the Damar injury.

[Daddy-O]

The league screwed this up bad. They are lying their a**es off to cover their tracks. They'll throw anyone under the bus to stay out of the crosshairs of this one. Shameful.

[dr tarzan]

(01-10-2023, 11:05 AM)Graphicguy Wrote: Bengals and the Bills did the right thing.  Troy Vincent sounds like a “Richard”.

Also caught Pat Macafee’s pre game show before the National Championship last night.  He was not complimentary about how some Bengals fans acted in the aftermath of the Damar injury.

Missed it.    wasn't at the game .  but as both teams left the field I heard  a scattering of boos but everyone surrounding the Bills tunnel  was giving a standing ovation for them.    So what was his beef?

[*jason*]

(01-10-2023, 11:17 AM)dr tarzan Wrote: Missed it.    wasn't at the game .  but as both teams left the field I heard  a scattering of boos but everyone surrounding the Bills tunnel  was giving a standing ovation for them.    So what was his beef?

He's just talking about how we bitched about the coin toss situation.

[Sled21]

(01-10-2023, 11:32 AM)jason Wrote: He's just talking about how we bitched about the coin toss situation.

People are perfectly within their rights to ***** about getting screwed over by the league in the aftermath.

[lacesout87]

(01-10-2023, 11:33 AM)Sled21 Wrote: People are perfectly within their rights to ***** about getting screwed over by the league in the aftermath.

This

[Isaac Curtis: The Real #85]

So, to recap, things we know:

1) The decision to stop the game and not resume play came from the Bills & Bengals players and coaches, not the league.

2) The broadcast statement from Buck were accurate.

3) The league, Troy Vincent, and others (Commish), lied about it.

4) Afterwards, the league changed the rules mid-season in a way that disadvantaged the Bengals more than any other team.

5) A lot of missed, obvious calls in a Bengals/Ravens game.

[*pally*]

(01-10-2023, 11:05 AM)Graphicguy Wrote: Bengals and the Bills did the right thing.  Troy Vincent sounds like a “Richard”.

Also caught Pat Macafee’s pre game show before the National Championship last night.  He was not complimentary about how some Bengals fans acted in the aftermath of the Damar injury.

McAfee can just shut up.  We aren't stupid or uncompassionate.  We can understand the decisions surrounding Damar and still be upset at the NFL for ignoring their own rules concerning seeding,  The 2 situations are emotionally separate

[WeezyBengal]

That source in the article is 1000% a Bengals source trying to get back at the league for them screwing us over.

Man I hope this doesn't translate to calls on the field or bias against our organization.

[*PhilHos*]

(01-10-2023, 12:48 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: Man I hope this doesn't translate to calls on the field or bias against our organization.

Too late. 

[WeezyBengal]

(01-10-2023, 12:49 PM)PhilHos Wrote: Too late. 

Right? 

[Graphicguy]

(01-10-2023, 11:17 AM)dr tarzan Wrote: Missed it.    wasn't at the game .  but as both teams left the field I heard  a scattering of boos but everyone surrounding the Bills tunnel  was giving a standing ovation for them.    So what was his beef?

He said he was surprised at some of the fans' reactions in the aftermath.  He thought the Bengals and Bills handled it the right way, forcing the NFL to cancel the game.  He went on to say some fans were PO'd about the cancellation and the possible coin toss.  He went on to say the optics of it weren't good.

I sometimes think he spouts off stuff to get a reaction.  In this case, I think he was just a bit shocked by the reactions.

Didn't hear any "boos" where I was sitting (Club Seats Bengals side), it was pretty quiet.  No one in our section knew what was going on.  But, aside from wondering what happened (all we saw was Tee getting tackled and Damar standing and then falling down).  People were on their phones to find out what was happening.

We sort of knew it was serious once we saw the medical people rush out immediately.  We also knew it was very serious when the ambulance came on the field.  There are some couches behind our section near a concession stand.  We went there and hung for a while asking concession workers what they knew (nothing) and what some other people who were trying to get info on their phones could find out (not much).  They were looking at the same feed I guess people watching on TV saw.

Once we saw Zak and Sean meet on the sidelines with the refs and the teams moving towards their tunnel, we knew the game wasn't going to be played.  We milled around a while.  No one knew what was going on.  But, it was quite somber.  Aside from a few (maybe 3-4) really drunk people (Bengals fans, unfortunately) yelling some pretty nasty stuff, everyone was shocked, concerned and sort of "in the dark".

The entire time, it was pretty danged quiet given there were ~65,000 all around
.

[Trademark]

(01-10-2023, 11:05 AM)Graphicguy Wrote: Bengals and the Bills did the right thing. Troy Vincent sounds like a “Richard”.

Also caught Pat Macafee’s pre game show before the National Championship last night. He was not complimentary about how some Bengals fans acted in the aftermath of the Damar injury.

Pat is a tool

[WeezyBengal]

(01-10-2023, 01:27 PM)Trademark Wrote: Pat is a tool

The cut off shirts, chain, and obnoxious opinion doesn't do it for you? 

[Roland]

There's a shocker.  ESPN fact checks themselves and finds themselves to be correct.  What a crock.  The corporate media care about themselves and their delusion of being authoritative above everything else.  They're never going to admit that they got anything wrong.  

Who was most served by declaring that the game was going to restart?  ESPN and their ratings.

Here's the key point in this story.

Quote:Multiple firsthand sources told ESPN that it was a senior NFL rules analyst inside the NFL command center who conveyed the plan to resume play to John Parry, an officiating expert working in the ESPN broadcast booth.

ESPN's source was a "Senior Rules Analyst" in the command center.  They conveniently don't name him to prevent any awkward fact checking of their fact checking.  But it wasn't anyone at the NFL with decision making power.

Buried much deeper in the story is this.

Quote:Last week, McCarthy said the NFL rules analyst in the command center was "adamant that at no time did he say anything related to a five-minute warmup period to John Parry. ... John is just plain wrong."

Meanwhile, from Zac Taylor.

Quote:Taylor said he "didn't feel any directive that guys need to start warming up."

"We've been through this situation a million times where there's an injury on the field," Taylor said. "There was no push for anything to happen. It was just, let's let these moments play out, see what the next step is, as people get a chance to get their minds right. Ultimately, that's what led to the decision."

So AFTER ESPN declared that they'd been given five minutes to warm up and that the game was going to be restarted, Taylor stated that there was no push for anything to happen.

The fact that Taylor hadn't been told anything when ESPN said that they were supposed to be warming up to restart suggests that ESPN was just spitting out speculative nonsense to fill dead air and keep people tuned in.  It's very likely that ESPN asked the NFL rules analyst what was going to happen and the rules analyst told them that normally they would restart after a break.  Even ESPN doesn't claim that any NFL executive ever said anything of the sort.

Then come the juicy parts.  ESPN outs their source "from one of the teams" as a Bills source and sheds more light on how badly the Bengals got screwed.

Quote:An hour after Hamlin fell, with the game still not officially postponed, some team officials were confused why NFL executives were delaying the inevitable. Multiple ideas and contingencies were floated from New York, two people with knowledge said, including the idea that the Bills would stay overnight in Cincinnati. That was "almost instantly shot down," a source said.


"We felt confusion and nonsense more than pressure," the team official said. "They were still discussing things. In our mind there was nothing to be discussed. ... If they would have said, 'If you leave you're forfeiting the game,' we're still leaving."

This confirms from a Bills source that nobody was ever pressured to resume.  NFL officials were probably running through all the scenarios for how they could reschedule and the Bills simply decided to leave.  They never intended to allow this game to be rescheduled.  They forfeited and the NFL counted it as a win for everyone but the Bengals.

An then finally, there's this from the Bills source.

Quote:"The league screws this s--- up because Troy Vincent screws this stuff up," the official said. "That's the wrong person in the wrong position at the absolute wrong time. ... He wants to be the hero, but he will never take accountability. That's him to a T."

What do you think ESPN would say about that if someone in an NFL organization said that about one of their black executives?

Outing this source as being from the Bills was entirely unnecessary and self-serving for ESPN.  It doesn't serve the story at all.  They just wanted to get as many digs in on the NFL as they could.   Maybe the Bill's ingratitude for getting handed control of the two seed  will discourage the NFL from doing any more to help the media get that Chiefs - Bills AFCC that they so desperately want.

[Roland]

(01-10-2023, 12:48 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: That source in the article is 1000% a Bengals source trying to get back at the league for them screwing us over.

Man I hope this doesn't translate to calls on the field or bias against our organization.

The article makes it pretty clear that it was a Bills source.

Quote:"We felt confusion and nonsense more than pressure," the team official said. "They were still discussing things. In our mind there was nothing to be discussed. ... If they would have said, 'If you leave you're forfeiting the game,' we're still leaving."