The Hamlin situation is so sad and terrible! Bronco riding, basketball, baseball, riding a bike down Spring Grove, going to the mall or a concert are all life threatening! The world has changed for the worse and people can’t wait to see, write , televise and read about it. What will happen? NOTHING! It’s the world we live in and I feel sorry for the next generation. I apologize for sounding so negative and blunt , but come up with a solution and let me know!
Listened to Coach Taylors press conference broadcast live in Buffalo. Very impressed with him,the Bengals have a great coach and person and I'm sure he will lead your team to a super bowl win in the near future. He is much like Bills coach McDermott changing the culture of the team. Big Reds fan here in Buffalo and thanks to the Bengals and everyone in Cinci for their support these past few days.
ALL very well said today Doc. So glad to see you offer the Web MD description of Commotio cordis (though, as you noted, not definitively given as a cause for the sudden cardiac arrest suffered by Damar Hamilin). It helps to have some idea of what likely/may have occurred. I really don't know who may have said it better than you have here. I appreciate your effort to nudge the NFL to take a look at their own mirror image and maybe make some changes to help make the game a safer one for players. In the meantime, we continue to pray for Damar Hamlin and all his family. Not to mention the rest of the NFL family obviously feeling the impact of the situation.
or they use this as an opportunity... Say install various health monitors into the players equipment. Let the health professionals monitor the players. Take the guessing/assessment out of it. If every second counts, how many seconds did it take for players to signal to the trainers to come out to the field, then how many for the trainers to notify paramedics, then how many to determine there was no pulse, etc. Hopefully this never happens again, but the upside could be unlimited for all of humanity with what may be learned from that kind of data. My guess is it would not cost NFL or teams a penny and they would have sponsors trying to market their equipment lined up from Seattle to Canton... Side note: I would also find it hard to believe there is not an impact sensor that could automatically alarm someone that the inside of this helmet sustained an impact worthy of a possible concussion.. go check them out.
I am not a doctor, but If no one else will touch it, I will. I initially thought Damar's injury was due to commotio cordis (did not know the term, but I knew of teenaged baseball pitchers dying when struck in the chest by a line drive). The more I read, the less I think it is.
Demar is 24 when the age range for commotio cordis is 8-18. It usually involves flying pucks and baseballs which have a high velocity, not an impact with a man running 20 mph tops. It involves a blow to the chest, but shoulder pads cover the chest. Younger people are susceptible to commotio cordis because their chest cavities are not hardened yet. That is not the case for a 24 year old who has spent significant time in the weight room.
Jan 4, 2023·edited Jan 4, 2023Liked by Paul Daugherty
In the last 20 years, the NFL, in agreement with the NFLPA, has slowly allowed a player to pick and choose how much safety equipment they want to wear. Players obviously want to play sleek and fast but at what cost? Well…it turns out that it could cost them serious injury and possibly their life. I don’t know what caused Hamlin’s heart to stop. UC may not yet know what caused his heart to stop. If his heart stopped because of a hit to the left side of his chest, there are two readily available pieces of equipment in an NFL locker room to help dissipate a hit like that; a larger, upper body coverage set of shoulder pads in conjunction with a QB flak jacket. Of course, no DB or receiver is going to wear those because it limits turning mobility and makes a player slower. I don’t fault Hamlin for this at all. If he isn’t sleek and fast he isn’t playing. Until the league and the union force players to dress for the high speed car wreck an average NFL game is, they will have more game stopping injuries similar or dissimilar to what happened Monday night. The NFL really is just modern day gladiator fighting. Do you want to see a fight to the death? I don’t.
I have to say, I miss the game...and I really miss that game. For some of us, I guess, football is sometimes the highlight our life while trying to snuff out the calamities of the world around us. Someone pm Sportscenter had a great idea this morning. While there is a week's break before playoffs, perhaps that is when the Bengals and Bills could complete their game. It should start when it ended, as does baseball, with the score as it was left on the field, and with the same time left in the first quarter. They would both lose a week of rest, but it might get things back on track. I'm not heartless by any means...but life goes on and I doubt Damar would want it any other way. He, too, loves the game.
My biggest upsetting moment was this morning when ESPN shared they were getting reports of people blaming Higgins and trying to say he caused this Hit to happen on purpose. Ridiculous! Lamar made the hit, and when he went in for the tackle, he crashed right into Higgins left shoulder pad with his chest. I'm thinking, after watching this in slow motion, that was the contact that may have caused the heart to stop. Anyone using the "blame game" in this situation is from the dark side of social media and must be ignored and stopped. I'm personally sick of the hate in this country at this point.
Maybe we start by cutting down on replays of particularly brutal hits. Say if the crowd "Oooos" or "Ahhhs" a big hit, we just don't show it? We don't put it on Sportscenter? We don't have the master bloviators on the cable sports shows talk about it ad nauseam? I'd take solid tackling over big hits any day of the week, anyway. I didn't use to feel that way. I loved the big hits. But as I got older, and we learned more about the impact of head trauma on the players, screw the big hits.
If the Hamlin injury/illness was caused by a freak hit to a part of his body at just the right time...can we do anything about such a thing? I guess we try our best.
As I said yesterday, the real concern, the real prayer, the real humanity that many have shown is a good thing for our communities, for our country, for the world. Let's keep that rolling.
Seems that the reaction to this from fanbases, players, coaches, etc. has demonstrated that we are well on our way to humanizing players and the game. It has flown in the face of the anti-football factions who feel that we as fans are only filled with bloodlust. I feel this is driven largely by how this specific incident reveals our innate fragility. This wasn't a jedi racecar driver piloting a 200mph super-machine, it wasn't a heavyweight boxer exerting a lethal amount of psi onto another fighter. It was a freak accident that could have just as easily happened in a minor car wreck, on a high school lacrosse field, or at a 10 year old's little league game. That is the part that is truly jarring. It's a reminder that simply 'living life' is potentially perilous.
It's never a bad time to address the physical hazards of pro football. But for the life of me, I can't find fault with the NFL for this, as I've seen many do. The Shield will have ample opportunity to elicit criticism as it tries to navigate the minefield of re-scheduling (or not) this game. Unless The Bengals, Chiefs and Bills all win on Sunday, that is going to be quite a mess.
The Hamlin situation is so sad and terrible! Bronco riding, basketball, baseball, riding a bike down Spring Grove, going to the mall or a concert are all life threatening! The world has changed for the worse and people can’t wait to see, write , televise and read about it. What will happen? NOTHING! It’s the world we live in and I feel sorry for the next generation. I apologize for sounding so negative and blunt , but come up with a solution and let me know!
Listened to Coach Taylors press conference broadcast live in Buffalo. Very impressed with him,the Bengals have a great coach and person and I'm sure he will lead your team to a super bowl win in the near future. He is much like Bills coach McDermott changing the culture of the team. Big Reds fan here in Buffalo and thanks to the Bengals and everyone in Cinci for their support these past few days.
The NFL washed it’s hands of NFL Blitz video game now society has to wash its hands of all the video games that contain violence and killing.
That is too funny!
ALL very well said today Doc. So glad to see you offer the Web MD description of Commotio cordis (though, as you noted, not definitively given as a cause for the sudden cardiac arrest suffered by Damar Hamilin). It helps to have some idea of what likely/may have occurred. I really don't know who may have said it better than you have here. I appreciate your effort to nudge the NFL to take a look at their own mirror image and maybe make some changes to help make the game a safer one for players. In the meantime, we continue to pray for Damar Hamlin and all his family. Not to mention the rest of the NFL family obviously feeling the impact of the situation.
Right on everything. Musical link was perfect.
or they use this as an opportunity... Say install various health monitors into the players equipment. Let the health professionals monitor the players. Take the guessing/assessment out of it. If every second counts, how many seconds did it take for players to signal to the trainers to come out to the field, then how many for the trainers to notify paramedics, then how many to determine there was no pulse, etc. Hopefully this never happens again, but the upside could be unlimited for all of humanity with what may be learned from that kind of data. My guess is it would not cost NFL or teams a penny and they would have sponsors trying to market their equipment lined up from Seattle to Canton... Side note: I would also find it hard to believe there is not an impact sensor that could automatically alarm someone that the inside of this helmet sustained an impact worthy of a possible concussion.. go check them out.
I am not a doctor, but If no one else will touch it, I will. I initially thought Damar's injury was due to commotio cordis (did not know the term, but I knew of teenaged baseball pitchers dying when struck in the chest by a line drive). The more I read, the less I think it is.
Demar is 24 when the age range for commotio cordis is 8-18. It usually involves flying pucks and baseballs which have a high velocity, not an impact with a man running 20 mph tops. It involves a blow to the chest, but shoulder pads cover the chest. Younger people are susceptible to commotio cordis because their chest cavities are not hardened yet. That is not the case for a 24 year old who has spent significant time in the weight room.
There is a study from Europe which shows two rugby players in their 20s with myocarditis were hospitalized after being struck in the chest. One died. https://academic.oup.com/ehjcr/article/5/3/ytab054/6154461?login=false#368845659
In the last 20 years, the NFL, in agreement with the NFLPA, has slowly allowed a player to pick and choose how much safety equipment they want to wear. Players obviously want to play sleek and fast but at what cost? Well…it turns out that it could cost them serious injury and possibly their life. I don’t know what caused Hamlin’s heart to stop. UC may not yet know what caused his heart to stop. If his heart stopped because of a hit to the left side of his chest, there are two readily available pieces of equipment in an NFL locker room to help dissipate a hit like that; a larger, upper body coverage set of shoulder pads in conjunction with a QB flak jacket. Of course, no DB or receiver is going to wear those because it limits turning mobility and makes a player slower. I don’t fault Hamlin for this at all. If he isn’t sleek and fast he isn’t playing. Until the league and the union force players to dress for the high speed car wreck an average NFL game is, they will have more game stopping injuries similar or dissimilar to what happened Monday night. The NFL really is just modern day gladiator fighting. Do you want to see a fight to the death? I don’t.
I have to say, I miss the game...and I really miss that game. For some of us, I guess, football is sometimes the highlight our life while trying to snuff out the calamities of the world around us. Someone pm Sportscenter had a great idea this morning. While there is a week's break before playoffs, perhaps that is when the Bengals and Bills could complete their game. It should start when it ended, as does baseball, with the score as it was left on the field, and with the same time left in the first quarter. They would both lose a week of rest, but it might get things back on track. I'm not heartless by any means...but life goes on and I doubt Damar would want it any other way. He, too, loves the game.
My biggest upsetting moment was this morning when ESPN shared they were getting reports of people blaming Higgins and trying to say he caused this Hit to happen on purpose. Ridiculous! Lamar made the hit, and when he went in for the tackle, he crashed right into Higgins left shoulder pad with his chest. I'm thinking, after watching this in slow motion, that was the contact that may have caused the heart to stop. Anyone using the "blame game" in this situation is from the dark side of social media and must be ignored and stopped. I'm personally sick of the hate in this country at this point.
Maybe we start by cutting down on replays of particularly brutal hits. Say if the crowd "Oooos" or "Ahhhs" a big hit, we just don't show it? We don't put it on Sportscenter? We don't have the master bloviators on the cable sports shows talk about it ad nauseam? I'd take solid tackling over big hits any day of the week, anyway. I didn't use to feel that way. I loved the big hits. But as I got older, and we learned more about the impact of head trauma on the players, screw the big hits.
If the Hamlin injury/illness was caused by a freak hit to a part of his body at just the right time...can we do anything about such a thing? I guess we try our best.
As I said yesterday, the real concern, the real prayer, the real humanity that many have shown is a good thing for our communities, for our country, for the world. Let's keep that rolling.
Bart Scott needs to shut his mouth, by the way.
Love Jackson Browne and that cut.
Does anyone know how Tee Higgins is doing? I am worried about him. Is anyone doing anything to support him through this?
Seems that the reaction to this from fanbases, players, coaches, etc. has demonstrated that we are well on our way to humanizing players and the game. It has flown in the face of the anti-football factions who feel that we as fans are only filled with bloodlust. I feel this is driven largely by how this specific incident reveals our innate fragility. This wasn't a jedi racecar driver piloting a 200mph super-machine, it wasn't a heavyweight boxer exerting a lethal amount of psi onto another fighter. It was a freak accident that could have just as easily happened in a minor car wreck, on a high school lacrosse field, or at a 10 year old's little league game. That is the part that is truly jarring. It's a reminder that simply 'living life' is potentially perilous.
It's never a bad time to address the physical hazards of pro football. But for the life of me, I can't find fault with the NFL for this, as I've seen many do. The Shield will have ample opportunity to elicit criticism as it tries to navigate the minefield of re-scheduling (or not) this game. Unless The Bengals, Chiefs and Bills all win on Sunday, that is going to be quite a mess.
Don't forget the men and women that come home from over seas without a limb or their life. Sports all of a sudden becomes a lot less relevant.
Another pensive observation...thanks for the mental stimulation...if only...
BTW...another song from those days in Lex...4th floor Graham Lee to 401 E Washington St...BGDHOC...lol