Bills versus Bengals Monday Night Football Jan 2

[C C]

Bills Playoff Picture: Week 17 against Bengals could tip the scales
https://buffalowdown.com/2022/12/27/bill...7-bengals/

EXCERPT: . . . At 12-3, the Bills are entering the biggest game of the season — by far. It’s Monday Night Football and the Bills are traveling to take on one of the league’s hottest teams in their house.

Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals can’t be stopped as of late, and this is a matchup which could completely change the playoff picture for Buffalo.

Buffalo currently holds the number one seed, but the Bengals are technically still alive for that positioning as well. At 11-4 and winners of seven in a row, Cincinnati could really make things interesting.
The Buffalo Bills have to win in Week 17 in order to avoid a nail-biting Week 18.

Here’s just how important this matchup is: if the Bills lose, their odds of landing the number one seed drop to just 15 percent, according to this playoff simulator... (MORE - missing details)
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Buffalo Bills play next Monday night. What to know about game of the year
https://buffalowdown.com/2022/12/27/bill...7-bengals/

EXCERPTS: Naturally, everyone expected that Diggs was going to go off against a weak Bears defense that would be starting two rookie cornerbacks on the outside and a rookie slot corner. Instead, he was targeted only twice, catching both for a harmless 26 yards, the least productive game of his three-year Bills career, though the Bills still rolled to a 35-13 victory.

[...] Next Monday night, the Bills may not be able to beat the Cincinnati Bengals if they don’t get Diggs back into dangerous mode. This has all the makings of an offensive shootout as they will be facing red-hot Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Joe Mixon in a game that, in all likelihood, will determine who is earning the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoff bracket.

Allen and Diggs, one of the most prolific combinations in the NFL for three years running, have to re-establish their connection by the time they walk into Paycor Stadium.

“We want the ball in his hands, it’s no secret, the type of player and person that he is,” Allen said. “I’ll talk to (Ken Dorsey) and figure out how we can best do that moving forward. But at this time I’m not panicking or freaking out about it. He’s had such a great year this year and he’s helped us get to this point right now. We wouldn’t be where we’re at without him.” (MORE - missing details)

[Leigha]

Read on Twitter earlier, that this game has been suspended due to a Bills player (Damar Hamlin) collapsing after a tackle on the field. They were administering CPR on the field, and he's in critical condition, now.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mon...-rcna63989

[Yazata]

It looks like it was cardiac arrest. The player's heart either stopped beating or started fibrillating after a hard blow to the chest after he made a rather normal looking tackle. He stood up under his own power after making the hit, but then collapsed.

It appears that the trainers were performing CPR. Then an ambulance rolled out onto the field and the paramedics appear to have done that electric-shock thing to get his heart beating again. But initial reports suggest that he still wasn't breathing and had to be ventillated.

He's in the ICU now, intubated and under sedation. I guess the question is whether he suffered any permanent damage (brain damage or whatever).

[Zinjanthropos]

Hope the kid recovers. I’m guessing the Bills forfeit the game, just can’t see them wanting to go back but life goes on as they say. NFL and NFLPA will decide whether or not game is played.

[C C]

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/bills...-fighting/

Tuesday morning, family spokesperson Jordon Rooney provided an update on Damar Hamlin: "I can't speak specifically on his medical condition. All I'll say is, he's fighting. He's a fighter. ... The family's in good spirits. We're honestly just taking it minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour. ... What's most important is to give the family their privacy. ... His family is going through a lot right now."

I hope there's a good sign of something in that obscurity, that Damar will eventually recover without life-upending problems. 

Looks like Skip Bayless already did his expected outrage inducing comment [callous context this time]: 

Damar Hamlin updates
https://nypost.com/2023/01/03/bills-dama...ac-arrest/

"No doubt the NFL is considering postponing the rest of this game - but how?" Bayless tweeted as medical personnel tended to Hamlin on the field in Cincinnati. "This late in the season, a game of this magnitude is crucial to the regular-season outcome ... which suddenly seems so irrelevant."

Bayless' Monday night tweet received immediate backlash, with NFL players, including Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner and free agent wideout Dez Bryant, firing back at the Fox host.

[C C]

It looks like it was cardiac arrest. The player's heart either stopped beating or started fibrillating after a hard blow to the chest after he made a rather normal looking tackle. He stood up under his own power after making the hit, but then collapsed.

It appears that the trainers were performing CPR. Then an ambulance rolled out onto the field and the paramedics appear to have done that electric-shock thing to get his heart beating again. But initial reports suggest that he still wasn't breathing and had to be ventillated.

He's in the ICU now, intubated and under sedation. I guess the question is whether he suffered any permanent damage (brain damage or whatever).

Commotio cordis, maybe, according to the Establishment...

Injury is seen more often in baseball or hockey, Pa. doctors say
https://www.pennlive.com/news/2023/01/sh...s-say.html

EXCERPT: She [Dr. Jessica Butts, a sports medicine physician] said the injury is rarely seen in football. Rather, it’s most common among young men participating in sports such as baseball or hockey after being struck by a ball or puck, or from a blow sustained in sports such as boxing or martial arts. The survival rate is only about 15%, she said. (MORE - missing details)
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Damar Hamlin may have suffered "remarkably rare" condition, Dr. Agus says
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/damar-hamli...ac-arrest/

EXCERPT: Dr. David Agus [...] While it's not yet clear what caused Hamlin's heart to suddenly stop beating, Agus believes he sustained blunt force trauma to his chest "in the exact right spot, at the exact right moment during his heartbeat," which caused his heart to have an arrhythmia — "not beat effectively to push blood to the brain."

Agus suspects Hamlin's heart was in ventricular fibrillation. 

"What we know with commotio cordis, which is this condition, is that every minute you delay shocking them, resuscitating them, what happens is there's an increase of 10% in mortality," Agus said. "They started CPR right away, which is great. My hope is they were able to restore the heart rate soon enough to be able to get blood flow to the brain so there's no damage there."

Only about 30 of these cases happen in the United States each year, predominantly in children, according to Agus... (MORE - missing details)

https://youtu.be/PPHnZ4TLaWU

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/PPHnZ4TLaWU

[Yazata]

Hi, CC -- Commotio cordis sounds like what the problem was.

From the Wikipedia article, it sounds like the survival rate isn't all that good, with survival pretty much a function of how quickly they can restore blood flow to the brain.

They started CPR quickly on the field (good), but it sounds like the electric-shock heart restart thing wasn't until 5-10 minutes later (not so good).

I'm afraid that this kid's chances of surviving without serious lasting brain damage might be iffy.

[Zinjanthropos]

Listening to Buffalo sports radio WGR550 and one suggestion was to not play the game and have a coin flip to decide division/conference winner. The overwhelming sentiment in B-lo is that the game will not be finished. Another suggestion was have Buffalo and KC flip coin and winner can either take the bye or first place, not both.

[Leigha]

It sounds like Damar Hamlin is improving, so that's encouraging to hear.

In terms of the Bills and Bengals game, why couldn't they just consider it a tie? I'm not that familiar with football rules, so I'm not sure how that would affect the rest of the other teams as it relates to the Super Bowl.

[C C]

It sounds like Damar Hamlin is improving, so that's encouraging to hear.

In terms of the Bills and Bengals game, why couldn't they just consider it a tie? I'm not that familiar with football rules, so I'm not sure how that would affect the rest of the other teams as it relates to the Super Bowl.

According to this, Cincinnati would "unfairly" win the AFC North title outright if the Bills-Bengals game isn't played (which it surely won't). And Kansas City would "unfairly" garner the home-field playing advantage throughout the AFC division playoffs if the Chiefs beat the Raiders in a game scheduled Saturday,

Would hardly be the first time the NFL either allowed or arranged teams like the Baltimore Ravens and the Bills to be stiffed of their rightful opportunities. Buffalo might as well just accept that kismet is forever against them in the playoffs. They've demonstrated they can beat the Chiefs in the regular season, but in post-season when they get past being derailed by their own past deficiencies, something like this will intervene that's beyond their control.

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Hard to believe even this unfortunate incident has veered off into vaccine controversy.

https://www.al.com/nfl/2023/01/damar-ham...cines.html

EXCERPT: Unfounded claims about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines proliferated in the hours and days after Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed during Monday’s game, revealing how pervasive vaccine misinformation remains three years after the pandemic began.

Even before Hamlin was carried off the field in Cincinnati, posts amassing thousands of shares and millions of views began circulating online claiming without evidence that complications from COVID-19 vaccines caused his health emergency.

Peter McCullough, a Dallas cardiologist and outspoken vaccine critic, amplified the theories on a Fox News segment hosted by Tucker Carlson on Tuesday, speculating that “vaccine-induced myocarditis,” may have caused Hamlin’s episode. While the Bills have not said whether Hamlin was vaccinated, about 95% of NFL players have received a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the league.

In his Tuesday segment, Carlson claimed McCullough and another researcher found that “more than 1,500 total cardiac arrests” have occurred among European athletes “since the vax campaign began.”

But Carlson was citing a letter in which the authors’ evidence was a dubious blog that lists news reports of people all over the world, of all ages, dying or experiencing medical emergencies. The blog proves no relationship between the incidents and COVID-19 vaccines; it also includes in its count reported deaths from cancer and emergencies of unknown causes.