IN THE middle of the first quarter on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” Joe Buck’s call was pretty innocuous. “Here’s [Tee] Higgins … wide open … to midfield and lowers the shoulder for 13.”
The camera cut away to a fan.
Buck’s partner Troy Aikman started saying, “This is where Joe Burrow is so good …”
Buck interrupted: “Another Bills player is down.”
Aikman said: “I can’t tell exactly who that is.”
Buck responded: “Maybe [Damar] Hamlin.”
After providing some detail on the Bills’ secondary, Buck added, “And that is Damar Hamlin, a big piece of this defense for Sean McDermott. Back after this.”
“We didn’t show it, but they were feverishly administering CPR, so we knew the gravity of the situation,” Buck told The Post in a phone interview after the game.
Buck and ESPN were now covering a news event, not a football game. Hamlin was in cardiac arrest and his life was in danger.
Buck said he has never seen anything like that before. It was so “shocking” and such a “blur” that he couldn’t even remember what he said.
“My natural instinct at that moment is not to talk,” Buck said on the phone. “That’s the last thing I want to do is to put my words to this serious situation. It’s very counterintuitive as the football play-by-play guy about somebody having CPR administered to him in the center of a stadium with 65,000 people in it and a national television audience. It’s just a weird place to be.
“I think being quiet is OK. Having it being reverent and quiet is OK because the stadium was stone cold quiet and the players were in utter shock.”
Buck’s instincts were correct. In these situations, less is more, because the situation is so serious and the information is so limited.
After its first break, ESPN came back and showed two replays of Hamlin collapsing. Aikman sounded stunned, saying he hoped Hamlin would be OK. ESPN then took another break.
When they came back, Buck said, “You can see the ambulances are on the field, and they are intensely working on Damar Hamlin.”
A picture of Bills quarterback Josh Allen showed him with his hands over his nose and tears in his eyes. The image showed the seriousness of the situation better than anything.
“There is just nothing to say right now,” Buck told the audience. “We’ll take another break and come back.”
Out of commercial, MNF sideline reporter Lisa Salters reported on what she saw from the field level before Buck solemnly told viewers what was happening.
“They have been administering CPR through these past two breaks that we have taken,” Buck said on-air. “And, as Lisa said, Damar Hamlin has been down for over nine minutes now with everybody watching and praying and hoping for the best.”
Next, ESPN leaned on its studio team of Suzy Kolber, Booger McFarland and Adam Schefter. McFarland, an ex-player, stood out, calling for the game to be postponed for the night before the NFL made its decision.
After Hamlin was taken to the hospital, there was a point when Buck said on the air that the teams were told they would have five minutes to warm-up. The information about the game resuming, Buck said, came from ESPN’s rules expert John Parry, who was in direct communication with the league. (NFL executive vice president Troy Vincent later denied the NFL was going to resume the game, but did not say anything in real time). ESPN showed Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow throwing as if he expected the game to continue.
“They said they’re going to give five minutes of a warm-up to these players to get ready,” Buck said via phone.
Bengals coach Zac Taylor walked across the field to discuss the situation with the Bills’ McDermott. After Taylor and McDermott spoke, the game was temporarily suspended. It would end up not resuming as Hamlin became the focus.
“Honestly, as you and I talk right now, I have no idea what I said,” Buck said. “It’s kind of a blur.”
