Top 5: The Fallout from Damar Hamlin incident
Before the PC police come a blazin’ let’s state the latest report on Hamlin is that he showing signs of improvement, though still in critical condition. No doubt the scene on Monday Night Football was jarring. Eight minutes of resuscitation is a shit ton of time to think about a friend, colleague, son, husband, brother, professional football player dieing. Seeing it live on a nationally televised broadcast adds a whole other layer to it. But, he didn’t die.
TOP 5 Fall outs
The Bills soft underbelly has been exposed
This is a tongue and cheek comment. I will keep reiterating this for the twitter eggs out there. However, the Bills team contemplating forfeiting their last 2 games because of their mental well being is, I’m sorry, an over reaction. I understand the incident was scary. I get you’re worried about your teammate. Bad shit happens to people all the time. As I’m typing this 100’s of Ukrainians and Russians are being EXPLODED, an infant just died in her mother’s arms, there are literally a billion people starving. BOOM! 50 car crashes just happened! There was less public support and outcry for the Parkland masacre. It’s not to understate Damar Hamlin’s condition it’s to say the world goes on. As hard as it may seem. I understand we are currently living in the most peaceful time in the history of the world which has created the softest, richest, most spoiled country in the history of the world. It doesn’t mean that world stops because you’re sad or scared.
So, I guess this is less about the Bills and more a testimony on the modern athlete. Pampered and paid millions. Treated like gods. If work becomes too hard for their mental welfare they quit. Until they are good and ready to come back and give it their all. Maybe it’s a testament on the American youth as a whole? A discussion for another day and for smarter people.
Here’s what I know. Bills Mafia from 2018 would smash their mental health through a table lit on fire and win the next game by 50 on their way to a Superbowl for their boy. Some fake team success and a new dome stadium on the way and the once heralded best fan base in the NFL and the tough hard nose Buffalo Bills have gone on Hollywood. All because a player almost died in front of them, sheesh.
The age of social media continues to suck
Can we get commentary with out dragging someone or an entire side of an argument down as if they are the incarnation of Lucifer himself. Twitter is with out a doubt the most vile and hideous place to be on the planet. It wouldn’t exist is people couldn’t pick and choose their own personal enemy at the blink of an eye. Expect most don’t choose for themselves. They follow the crowd and pile on.
The outrage the outrage! Poor Skip. Skip Bayless has been playing America’s troll Dad for decades. He’s a professional asshole. You should applaud the douchebag for thinking outside the box. Fuck, half of you voted one of these “say the quiet part out loud” shit for brains to be President of the United States. I saw a lot o f black guys kneeling on that field… Outrage! But in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
The NFL can’t not lie
Joe Buck mentioned at least three times the players would have about 5 minutes to warm up for play to resume before the game was inevitably postponed. This was after Bengals head coach Zac Taylor walked across the field to speak with Bills head coach Sean McDermott. That conversation went roughly like this “Fuck the league. We’re calling this shit.”
NFL VP and outed Patriots hater had this to say.
“I’m not sure where that came from,” Vincent said. “Frankly, there was no time period for the players to get warmed up. Frankly, the only thing that we asked was that [referee] Shawn [Smith] communicate with both head coaches to make sure they had the proper time inside the locker room to discuss what they felt like was best. So I’m not sure where that came from. Five-minute warmup never crossed my mind, personally. And I was the one . . . that was communicating with the Commissioner. We never, frankly, it never crossed our mind to talk about warming up to resume play. That’s ridiculous. That’s insensitive. And that’s not a place that we should ever be in.”
Look, I don’t even blame the NFL if they were logistically thinking about what to do next in this situation. People want to boil it everything down to black and white and that’s not how the world works. Yes, traumatic incident on the field. People are in shock. It’s nuts. It’s now someone’s job to decide what to do next. It’s not as easy as well a kid looks really fucked up so everyone go home. Inevitably that was probably the right decision. But, you have 60,000 people there. Millions of viewers. Advertisers, major implication from the out come. All that certainly feels trivial in comparison to a man’s life, yes. But you’re dealing with this shit in real time and very little information. My point is, is that so hard to say for the NFL? An ounce of transparency and humility from this league just once and they could start to win back some good will, but no. Instead they wait until mid night to get their stories straight and make an announcement. Cowards.
4. The AFC playoff picture is wacky
Update: It looks like with the latest news of Hamlin making positive strides the Bills, somehow, someway, by the grace of god, will be able to will themselves to play football Sunday against the Pats (for a minute I thought we had ourselves a real humdinger of a back dooring into the playoff situation). What does that mean for playoff seeding?
Welp, we still don’t know how they will handle the Bengals v Bills game. Last rumor was they would simply eliminate it and use winning % to determine the seeding. If Chiefs, Bills, and Bengals all win this week here’s what that looks like.
.824 chiefs with 14 wins in 17 games
.812 bills with 13 wins in 16 games
.75 Bengals 12 wins in 16 games
Do the math on on the permitations of other win - loss scenarios. The deal remains the same for Bills and Chiefs. Bills win and Chiefs lose Bills get #1 seed. Bengals kind of get screwed here with no real shot at #1 seed now, but god damn it a man almost died!
And I know nobody cares, but how the hell do I straighten out this Fantasy league championship? I know I’m not the only one in this boat. There’s a lot of god damn money on the line never mind the sweet sweet taste of victory my league happens to call Rene.
5. Vegas
How do you make a spread for a team all up in their feelings going against a team all up in their feelings? Bills don’t want to play this week and the Patriots offense haven’t wanted to play for Patricia since July. What an interesting case study into the psychology of man. How The plight of one man’s fall can lift his companions up and propell them forward or drag them down with grief. And some bald headed geek in the basement of a dirty Las Vegas casino, knee deep in Cheetos has to lay down what that means in a point spread. God Bless America and here’s to a speedy recovery for Damar Hamlin.
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