Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. Like everyone else, I’m waiting anxiously for the latest on Damar Hamlin.
In today’s SI:AM:
🏥 What happened after Hamlin’s cardiac arrest
🏀 FGCU says good riddance to the midrange jumper
🏆 Our first CFP title game preview
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Hamlin remains in critical condition
Bills safety Damar Hamlin, who went into cardiac arrest after a collision during Monday Night Football, remains sedated and in critical condition as of early Wednesday morning, according to ESPN’s Coley Harvey.
In a story published yesterday afternoon, Albert Breer has some additional information about the immediate response to Hamlin’s collapse and how both teams handled its aftermath. In a statement yesterday, Hamlin’s family thanked first responders for their role in treating him immediately. According to Breer, the medical personnel on hand enacted an emergency plan that is rehearsed annually at all 30 NFL stadiums.
Breer also wrote that it was Bills coach Sean McDermott and quarterback Josh Allen who took charge in addressing the team in the locker room. Sources with whom Breer spoke were “understandably private” but “lauded the way they handled the situation with staff and players, respectively, with a real understanding of where everyone was mentally after witnessing what happened.” Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow also made sure to check in on the Bills, Breer wrote:
After the players went back to their locker rooms, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow gathered the Cincinnati captains to walk over to the Bills’ locker room to check in on the Buffalo players. There’s an unspoken code among NFL players that, due to football being such a violent game, dictates that guys take care of one another whenever they can. And this is a vivid illustration of it.
While Hamlin’s health is obviously the focus and will remain so, it’s also worth examining the NFL’s immediate response to his collapse. Did the league really try to restart the game with a five-minute warmup? NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent told reporters Monday night that it was “ridiculous” to think the game would have been restarted. But in a statement yesterday, ESPN said it stands by its reporting that the league intended to resume the game. The information about the warmup period came from rules analyst John Parry, who relayed it to play-by-play broadcaster Joe Buck. Buck told the New York Post that Parry was in direct communication with the league. The truth matters here because if the league tried to go on with the show after the traumatic scene the players had just witnessed, it deserves to be shamed for acting callously to protect its own interests. Lying about whether it attempted to restart the game would just make matters worse.
The postponement of the game does complicate the NFL’s plans for the rest of the regular season and the playoffs. The game will not resume this week. It remains to be seen how the league will resolve the scheduling and playoff seeding implications.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- In today’s Daily Cover, Emma Baccellieri shares the story of the Florida Gulf Coast women’s basketball program and its coach’s analytics-friendly philosophy:
The midrange jumper may be diminished. But it’s certainly not dead: If it’s easy to spot teams who aspire to that kind of efficiency as an ideal, well, it’s much harder to spot those who have found a way to really put it into practice.
But then there’s FGCU—who’s been putting it into practice almost as long as the program has existed.
The top five…
… things I saw last night:
5. 50-year-old Jaromír Jágr’s goal in a top-level Czech league game.
4. Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 55 points, a new career high for him.
3. Draymond Green’s super sneaky pass to Klay Thompson.
2. No. 2 NBA draft prospect Scoot Henderson’s explosive drive to the rim and thunderous dunk.
1. The electric scene at the World Darts Championship, where Michael Smith pulled off a rare nine-darter on his way to victory.
SIQ
On this day in 1957, which MLB team became the first to purchase its own airplane?
- Cardinals
- Cubs
- Yankees
- Dodgers
Yesterday’s SIQ: In the history of the College Football Playoff, which dates back to 2014, which seed has won the most national titles?
Answer: No. 2 seeds. (Sorry, Michigan fans.) While the top-seeded teams have made the title game more often than any other seed, with six appearances, those top-ranked squads have won only two national titles (LSU in 2020 and Alabama in ’21). The No. 2 teams have won three championships in four appearances in the national title (Alabama in ’16 and Clemson in ’17 and ’19). No. 3 seeds have won just once in four appearances (Georgia in ’22) and fourth-seeded teams are 2–0 (Ohio State in ’14 and Alabama in ’18). —Josh Rosenblat
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