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Will Damar Hamlin’s shocking collapse change the NFL forever?

The biggest game of the NFL season gave way Monday night to the most terrifying nationally televised moment in league history when Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin faced a life-or-death emergency on the field.

Hamlin tackled Bengals receiver Tee Higgins, rose to his feet, adjusted his facemask and collapsed onto his back as medical personnel rushed onto the field to administer CPR. He was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital, where he was in critical condition, according to the NFL, and put to “sleep to put a breathing tube down his throat,” after his vital signs were stabilized, according to his friend and marketing rep Jordon Rooney of Jaster Athletes.

The rest of this NFL season — and maybe the future of football — changed in that moment. A Bills-Bengals game rich with playoff implications was suspended as coaches appeared to take matters into their own hands and pulled their teams off the field to go back to the locker room because players were either shocked or in tears. It is unclear when those teams — or any players around the NFL — will take the field again.

Damar Hamlin #3 of the Buffalo Bills walks to the tunnel during halftime against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Highmark Stadium on October 09, 2022 in Orchard Park, New York.
Second-year safety Damar Hamlin’s collapse left a stadium of players and fans in Cincinnati in stunned silence Monday night.
Getty Images

Detroit Lions receiver Chuck Hughes died of cardiac arrest on Oct. 23, 1971 after collapsing on the field only a few plays after he was tackled in a game against Chicago. The teams continued to play after he was carried off on a stretcher, treated in the tunnel of Tiger Stadium and taken to a local hospital.

More than 50 years of perspective and medical advancements made it common sense that Monday’s game had to be postponed, although it still took the NFL an hour to make the right call after first planning to resume following a five-minute warm-up period once the ambulance rolled away. As hundreds of players around the NFL offered prayers for Hamlin — both before and after the Bills; his alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh; his agents and friends asked for them — it was impossible not to wonder what changes will be made next to keep players safer in the most dangerous sport.

The strangest common sight in any football practice is when a player with a “routine” injury lies on the ground receiving attention from trainers and the ball is moved to a different part of the field and drills resume. Perhaps that normalization of injuries needs to stop.

Fans look on as the ambulance leaves carrying Damar Hamlin #3 of the Buffalo Bills after he collapsed after making a tackle against the Cincinnati Bengals during the first quarter at Paycor Stadium on January 02, 2023 in Cincinnati, Ohio.
An ambulance awaits to take Damar Hamlin to a Cincinnati hospital while his Bills teammates kneel in prayer. Getty Images
Getty Images

There were four traumatic injury (direct) fatalities that occurred in football in 2021, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research. All happened in high school football (three games and one practice) and all were related to brain injury, according to the data collected.

In light of Monday’s traumatic events, Post Sports+ decided that our regularly planned newsletter — one that examined Super Bowl contenders, former head coaches trying to get back into the league and the draft prospects of college quarterbacks — needed to be put on hold for all focus to properly remain on Hamlin’s condition.

Today’s back page

New York Post back page for Jan.  3, 2023.
New York Post
New York Post

Read more:

🏈 Who is Damar Hamlin, Bills safety seriously injured on ‘Monday Night Football’

🏈 Sports world shows outpouring of support for Bills’ Damar Hamlin: ‘Best of us’

🏈 How ESPN handled the broadcast during the horrifying Damar Hamlin injury

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