Hamlin’s Shocking Collapse Prompts Serious Questions
Over the past decade as a blogger and as a former sportswriter in the United States, I’ve written a fair amount about football. My…
Over the past decade as a blogger and as a former sportswriter in the United States, I’ve written a fair amount about football. My relationship status? It’s complicated.
And with the shocking, serious injury (death?) to Buffalo Bills defender Damar Hamlin a few hours before I posted this and the subsequent postponement of the game, like a lot of football fans, it’s hard to describe my mixed-up emotions. But I’m going to write from the heart and do the best I can because there are some things I feel I need to address.
In short, as a fan of this sport who continues to support it with my attention if not my money, I feel I owe some soul-searching to Damar Hamlin and all of the players who get hurt playing a game that is basically for entertainment.
Before I begin, first and foremost, I’m praying for Hamlin, his family, and his teammates. I know some of you don’t believe in the power of prayer and I’ve got no issues with that. I do, so I’m praying.
I’m also thinking of the players he was competing against on the Cincinnati Bengals. Serious injuries have always been a risk in the sport and there have been many harrowing moments of players down on the turf with teammates and opponents looking on with grave concern, but I don’t believe there’s ever been a game postponed because of a serious in-game injury.
In short, this is not going to be easy for those involved to move on from. Thankfully, upon seemingly getting word from the NFL head honchos that the players had five minutes to regroup and play after seeing Hamlin get CPR for several minutes, Cincinnati Head Coach Zac Taylor walked across the field to Buffalo Head Coach Sean McDermott and had a chat, and when it was over, both coaches sent their players to the locker rooms. The NFL is being correctly criticized for suggesting the game should have continued and Taylor, whose team was ahead and who has the most to gain from playing and winning this game, is being widely lauded for putting Hamlin’s health above anything else.
Regardless of what happens with this particular game, this incident is going to cause some serious soul-searching, especially for those who play it or for those who have loved ones that play it or are considering playing it. But I also think it should cause us fans to ponder our relationship to this sport.
Over the past decade, consciousness has been raised concerning long-term impacts to players’ brains from the constant violent collisions of the game and various football leagues have responded with much stricter rules against the most dangerous forms of tackles. However, many feel it’s not enough. The sad case of a legendary player like Junior Seau taking his own life after years of struggling with deteriorating mental health that was caused by the aggressive hits to his head is just one case that tells us this sport has a costly human toll.
Thinking about all of this, I’ve speculated that perhaps with the ever-increasing real-ness of virtual reality worlds, not so far down the line (a decade? two?), football played by humans will become a thing of the past, as robots playing football could be just as entertaining without the huge downside of life-threatening injuries (unless you want to get into a discussion about the sentience of robots, which I’m down for in a future post!).
Over the past decade, I’ve blogged about football and my own struggles as a fan to keep watching the sport, partly because I’d read a book called Against Football in 2014, written by a former fan who makes a compelling case about why he gave up his love of the sport.
And since October, I’ve been considering how my relationship to watching the NFL has a mirror to some of my experiences with addiction. I’ve been joking with myself that “The Matrix is sucking you in” when I turn on games and spend a few hours engaging with them. (That said, I tend to be reading or practicing the guitar as I watch, so it’s not all brain-dead time!). Is this the most healthy, life-enhancing way to be spending my time?
And then, today. Hamlin’s horrific injury was a brutal reminder in real-time in a primetime game with millions of viewers that this entertainment has consequences. Is it worth it? I don’t know. I do know I was happy they didn’t start playing again; I was, and still am four hours later, in no mood to watch football now. And that’s a shocking switch from where I was when I woke up this morning at 3 a.m. to watch my alma mater play Tulane in the Cotton Bowl and where I’ve been this whole winter break, watching games just about every day and often more than one.
Now, before I finish, I need to address an elephant in the room. I’ve purposefully put it at the end of this article because while I do think the issue is very important, I’m uncomfortable that it will overshadow the broader discussion I’ve just written about, causing people to choose a side and then do everything they can to not listen to the other side. Will you discount everything I’ve written based on what you are about to read? I sure hope not.
And that elephant is: What caused Hamlin’s injury? Could a COVID-19 “vaccine” have played a role?
Now, before I go on, I’m not a medical expert and don’t even want to play one on TV. Hospital shows either bore me or gross me out.
So, the heated debate in the Twittersphere — and this is just me reporting here, not stating my opinion — is whether the injury might be connected to the CV19 “vaccines.” (From here on out, I will always put the word vaccine in quotes when I’m speaking about the mRNA-based “vaccines.” Again, that is a topic for another post).
First, we have what is quickly forming as the official explanation: Commotio cordis, with tweets like the following expressing the sentiment.
While I appreciate that he uses the word “likely” — because no matter one’s credentials and experience, one can’t know for sure, not yet — -it’s silly and divisive to call those who are asking questions whether this is vaccine-related “terrible, horrible people” who are “unscientific” to boot.
I have a feeling Dr. Chris Haddock knows this, but there are scientific-minded people and medical professionals who have serious questions about the effectiveness and safety of the mRNA vaccines and it doesn’t take a lot of logical inference to understand that those questions can be motivated by a desire for people to be healthy, not because the person is terrible or horrible.
While Commotio cordis seems like a possibility, considering what appears to be a jump in the number of athletes having cardiac arrests around the world over the past year or so, and the fact that many athletes were mandated to get this new technology that are called COVID-19 mRna “vaccines,” asking whether there is a connection is the safe, sane thing to do.
There are a few reasons to assume Hamlin probably had at least the first round of the COVID-19 mRNA “vaccines.” First, he was a very low draft pick (6th Round, 212th overall) in the spring 2021 NFL Draft. That summer the NFL was extremely strict about asking players to get “vaccinated,” taking away privileges like sauna and steam room visits, eating in team cafeterias and open visits with vaccinated family members and friends from those who didn’t get vaccinated. (Current MVP Aaron Rodgers discusses being on the wrong end of these policies in this fascinating conversation). As a result of these policies, the NFL reported in July that 87.9 percent had gotten the first shot. Would a rookie, low-draft pick trying to make a team be in that 12 percent who refused? Not likely.
However, what we don’t know is his booster status. I’m hoping some diligent journalist can look this up. In a perfect world, these sorts of things would have been tracked all along, and people wouldn’t be called names for wanting these answers.
Now, before I finish, don’t get me wrong. I DO NOT KNOW what caused Hamlin’s collapse. Over the past year, I’ve been watching videos of athletes crumpling and asking myself — Did these exist before the “vaccines” and only now because people are looking for them, we are seeing them? I’d love for some hard-working, data-scientists with integrity and a passion for the truth to dig into the actual data on how many athletes died and/or collapsed from cardiac conditions pre-COVID-19 mRna “vaccines” and post-COVID-19 mRNA “vaccines.”
Like so many things relating to this topic, a quick search on the Internet will produce a wide variety of responses, some claiming the “vaccines” have nothing to do with these athletes collapsing and others claiming that they are taking data from around the world and it’s clearly pointing to a great increase in these collapses.
Again, I don’t know. But I want to find out. And I think you should, too.
Not only because we might lose someone close to us in this fashion, but because we may be watching some sort of live entertainment and witness the shock of a player like Hamlin suddenly collapsing. If this becomes a trend, are we still going to ignore this question?
In the end, if we’re going to make progress on this issue and so many others, we’re going to need less name-calling, less shaming and more awareness given to whether this is an issue we should be concerned about. An honest, open discussion with some healthy skepticism toward claims is all I’m asking for.
And now, I’m going to meditate on my relationship to football going forward. Should I turn away? Can I? Like I said, it feels almost like an addiction. What can I replace it with if I do? These are all questions this situation has me pondering.
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