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When Damar Hamlin suddenly collapsed on the field before being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, it was hard to imagine the Bills (and the Bengals, for that matter) would be in any condition to play the rest of the game. As a result, it was easy to understand why plenty of people were shocked to learn the two teams had supposedly been given five minutes to warm up before resuming play.
When Joe Buck shared that development with viewers on Monday Night Football, the NFL understandably found itself subjected to a deluge of backlash for a decision that came off as incredibly tone-deaf and insensitive (as you likely know, the league ultimately suspended the showdown before canceling it entirely).
It came as no surprise the league immediately entered the spin zone, as Troy Vincent (its executive vice president of football operations) firmly denied that a five-minute warning was ever issued while discussing the controversy the following morning. However, it didn’t take very long for ESPN to dispute that claim after Vincent attempted to pass the buck, as the network asserted it had simply relayed information that had been shared by the league.
Based on the virtually unprecedented nature of the incident, it’s easy to understand how there could have been some miscommunications over a rapidly developing situation where news related to immediate developments was fairly scarce. With that said, it seemed like we wouldn’t have to wait long for someone to conduct an investigation to try to figure out what really went down.
That “someone” ended up being ESPN reporter Don Van Natta Jr., who penned an in-depth article dissecting the situation that was published on Monday night.
Based on the many sources he spoke with, it would appear the initial reports about the impending resumption of play can be traced back to Joe Parry, an “officiating expert “who was in the booth with Buck during the contest and reportedly had an “open line of communication with the NFL rules analyst in the command center.”
Buck told the outlet he only passed on the info after Parry shared it with him, adding:
“If what I said on national TV with the eyes of the world watching was wrong in the view of the league, I would have been corrected—immediately. And I was not.”
Mystery solved?