At first glance, the Monday night collision between the wide receiver and the tackler looked like the end of any number of football plays that fans have watched for decades.
Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins, having caught a pass from Joe Burrow, lunged forward at midfield into Buffalo Bills defender Damar Hamlin. The two went to the ground. Hamlin bounced right up. Typical reception, typical tackle, first down, Bengals.
But three seconds later Hamlin collapsed backward onto the turf. Over the next several minutes it became clear that something was seriously wrong, and late Monday night, long after Hamlin had been taken to a hospital in an ambulance, the news came that his heart had stopped on the field, and that medics had revived him.
Even though it was clear early on that the Bills and Bengals players were too stunned by what had happened to continue playing, the NFL waited more than an hour to officially postpone the game, with Cincinnati leading 7-3 in the first quarter. The league said Tuesday that the game won’t be resumed this week, which creates the added drama of how the playoff possibilities of two of the AFC’s best teams will be affected.
The most puzzling thing about Hamlin’s injury is exactly what caused it. To repeat, the collision between him and Higgins did not appear to be excessively violent. If anything, Higgins, the wide receiver, was the aggressor as the two men collided.
Put another way, if that tackle can put a player’s life in serious danger, then just about any tackle in professional or college football carries the same risk.
The defining action appears to be Higgins’ lunge forward just before being tackled. When he did that, he lowered his head and his helmet smacked square into Hamlin’s chest. A few seconds later, Hamlin’s heart stopped.
The Washington Post interviewed two cardiologists, who said they can only speculate after watching video of the play. They said the helmet contact with Hamlin’s chest may have caused ventricular fibrillation, which is the rapid and disorganized contraction of the heart’s lower chambers that disrupts the normal pumping of blood around the body.
The heart’s operation relies on “carefully timed electronic signals,” according to the cardiologists, that may have been disturbed by the blow to Hamlin’s chest.
Other possible explanations for what happened include an aneurysm, which is the bursting of a bulge in a blood vessel; or a previously undetected heart defect that was triggered by the blow to the chest.
Hopefully we will know more soon about exactly how this happened. But for now, football fans have been reminded just how violent and damaging this wonderful game can be. Defensive players tend to gripe when they get flagged for roughing the passer or for a hard hit on a defenseless player. But as the world saw Monday night, such protections are very much needed.
Jack Ryan, Enterprise-Journal
