In the stunned silence of the Cincinnati stadium last night, as the injured Buffalo player Damar Hamlin was removed to the hospital and was (as I write this) still listed in critical condition, a remarkable thing took place.
The referees were telling the players and coaches to get ready to play in five minutes.
And the head coaches walked over to each other and told the referees that wasn't going to happen.
As Ryan Clark, a retired player, said on ESPN, this is a situation we have not dealt with before, a player falling to the field unconscious, receiving CPR and further medical attention, and being taken away by ambulance. But what should stand out more than anything is that the players had made it obvious to the coaches that playing football was the last thing on their minds at the time.
There was a time, trust me, that the players would have feared to speak up and refuse to play, but that's not the case anymore.
I don't know right now what will happen next and what effect this will have on the two teams in last night's game, the rest of the players in the league, and the fans all over. But at least this is for sure: people will have it in mind now that there are lots of things more important than football or any other game.
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