Bill Belichick addressed the media on Thursday (Image: New England Patriots YouTube)
The New England Patriots will close out the NFL regular season on Sunday against the Buffalo Bills, but this game isn’t at the forefront of anyone’s mind after Dummer Hamlin’s cardiac arrest on Monday. The Bills canceled media work after Monday’s event, but Patriots head coach Bill Belichick used airtime to talk about Hamlin.
Belichick showed the class by responding to a “chilling” incident that happened Monday night, stating that life is “bigger than the game.”
During the first quarter of Monday’s clash between the Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals, Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest after being hit by Tee Higgins. The game was suspended and then postponed as Hamlin received treatment on the field.
Bills has since provided an update on Hamlin’s condition, confirming he is “improving” despite his critical condition. Media duties continued as normal for the Patriots as they prepared to face the Bills on Sunday, but Belichick had just one topic on his mind.
Belichick was emotional ahead of Week 18 against Bills (Image: GETTY)
“On a personal level, I don’t usually watch Monday night games,” Belichick said. “Maybe it’s a random flick. But I was playing Buffalo for a short week, so I just happened to have it.
“When I saw this situation, it reminded me a lot of what I went through when I was with the Jets in 1997. In the last game of the year against the Lions, Reggie Brown was injured. It was a play, Adrian Brown was tackled with the ball, everyone got back to their feet and returned to the huddle, with Reggie playing motionless on the floor.
“He was unconscious for quite some time. Ten minutes or so. The whole process took a long time. He received CPR, was resuscitated, was put on a board, was put in an ambulance, was taken to an ambulance. It took maybe 30 minutes to be carried off the Superdome field.
“It was very similar to Monday night, the prayers and the kneeling. it will be one of them.
“Luckily Reggie is doing pretty well with the emergency surgery they had and the brace he’s wearing isn’t wheelchair bound. You have some sense of the. Like I said, you will never forget it.
“I reached out to different people about different perspectives of our sport, other sports, our teams, our players. I’ve said all I can say.” What I’m trying to say is, I think everyone is doing the best they can. It can be on different levels, different perspectives. We are all doing the best we can.
Hamlin collapsed during the first period before CPR was performed (Image: GETTY)
“Anyone else is probably doing the same thing, no matter what perspective you look at it. , they are all different.I’m not saying anything is the same’, but it’s very… no easy answer.
“We are doing the best we can with the resources we have in this organization to make them available to all members of the organization…I think this applies to everyone I’ve spoken to. Other teams and their perspectives too.
“Life is bigger than this game. It was an outstanding and humbling moment for all of us. As a coach, it is different. or how they do it, I don’t know.
“I am proud to coach the players I have coached here and elsewhere. I respect what they do and how they do it. We strive to coach the organization, it’s the coaching staff, it’s not personal, all of us are involved in coaching players, coaching techniques, training, and playing in the best and safest way possible. I am trying to do the same with the preparation of the .
“I don’t know what the outcome of that would be. I don’t know if it was a hindrance. I hope it worked out. That there are fixed examples where certain players or certain events are unsafe. I know, the player has recognized it.
“Nothing is more important than the health and safety of our players. No, the players are different, they go out there and put the equipment on there, it’s a contact sport.
“What they and their families deal with when participants deal is different than what I do as a coach.
