This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated February 10, 2023
Sunday, February 12 is Super Sunday, the unofficial designation given to the day when the Super Bowl takes place, which has become a quasi-American holiday. The New York Jets missed the playoffs, while the New York Giants surprised with their first-round win before being bounced the following week. The other New York team, the Buffalo Bills, also won just one playoff game, but many were pulling for them after tragedy struck the team three weeks earlier.
The Bills were eliminated from the playoffs on January 22 by the Cincinnati Bengals. Twenty days before, while playing in Cincinnati, Bills safety Damar Hamlin took a hard hit to the chest during a tackle, stood up, staggered, collapsed, and died. A professional football player suffered cardiac arrest and died on the field.
Fortunately, medical personnel tended to him within seconds, administering CPR and shocking his heart back to life with a defibrillator. After leaving the field in an ambulance and spending several days in the hospital in critical condition, he woke from a coma neurologically sound and is on the path to recovery.
During the period medical professionals worked to resuscitate Hamlin, players were distraught. Following the ambulance leaving the field, it was reported live by announcer Joe Buck that NFL officials had given the teams ten minutes to warm-up so play could resume. Players and the coaches would not play. The NFL denies there was a directive to resume, but most doubt that what had been relayed to viewers was some miscommunication. After all, this is what the NFL has always done in this situation.
“They’ve been given five minutes to, quote-unquote, get ready to go back to playing. That’s the word we get from the league and the word we get from down on the field, but nobody’s moving.”
ESPN Monday Night Football announcer Joe Buck during the January 2 game in which Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest and was revived on the field
In November of 1992 in the Meadowlands, Jets defensive end Dennis Byrd crashed headfirst into a teammate, breaking his spine and paralyzing him. After he was carted off the field, play resumed. Byrd did regain the ability to walk after extensive therapy.
Five years later, in December of 1997, Detroit Lions offensive lineman Mike Utley was paralyzed during a game. As he was wheeled off the field, he flashed a thumbs-up, which was touted as an inspirational gesture before the game resumed. Utley remains paralyzed from the chest down to this day.
In October of 1971, Detroit Lions wide receiver Chuck Hughes collapsed on the field and would die. He had collapsed two months earlier when playing against the Buffalo Bills, but doctors did not diagnose the serious heart condition which would ultimately take his life on the field weeks later, a game which resumed once he was rushed away in an ambulance.
24-year-old Hamlin’s contract paid him $825,000 this year and includes a $160,000 signing bonus. The league minimum salary is $705,000. This was Hamlin’s second season, which means he is not vested. Couple that with NFL contracts not being guaranteed, if he never plays again, he will receive no pension, nor any additional contract money.
In the last collective bargaining agreement, the NFL was able to negotiate the previous $22,000 monthly disability amount down to $4,000. The disability committee that rules on cases is headed by the NFL commissioner and administered by doctors on the NFL payroll. Even in cases where Social Security has deemed former players to be permanently disabled, the NFL’s committee can, and has, denied benefits. Social Security only approves about 15 percent of disability claims.
Many players who suffer from the traumatic brain injury CTE that football has been proven to cause, have been fighting for disability benefits, including money the NFL has been court-ordered to provide as part of a billion-dollar settlement. To date, less than seven percent of that settlement has been paid out, with six in ten qualified diagnoses still not having seen any disbursement.
The fact Damar Hamlin is doing well is amazing. That there were medical professionals saving his life within seconds of his heart stopping is incredible. Seeing people flood the GoFundMe he started for a Toys For Tots drive in his hometown, which had a goal of $2,500, surpass $9 million is heartwarming. But the realities of the injury he suffered at his workplace and what is or is not available to him in the form of benefits, is a worker’s rights issue and an organized labor issue.
The NFL generated over $17 billion in revenue last year off the backs of their workers. It affords many of them opportunities for success, but with the average length of service only three years, most never realize that. The least this multi-billion-dollar enterprise can do is care for the workers who become disabled doing this job and give them more than a $3,000 monthly pension check beginning at age 55.
