What happened last night is horrifying. In a way, it’s hard to comment on it without seeming hypocritical. Football is a violent sport. Players risk serious injury, and they do it for our entertainment. The risk is part and parcel of what drives our passion, even if it’s something that we’d rather not have to think about. Sure, nobody is holding a gun to players’ heads and they’re paid well for their efforts (in the NFL, at least).
Although I don’t think what happened to Hamlin is something any of us, including the players, consciously expects to be part of the bargain. Or at least wants to be part of it. But like I said, I’m not going to wallow in hypocrisy this morning by making some grand pronouncement about how they have to make the sport a lot safer.
Even so, I do have two points to make. First, the people running the sport on both the professional and collegiate levels, who are making billions in their position, have an obligation to make sure that these same players have access to necessary health care and treatment for whatever happens to them as a result of their playing careers — and not just for the time they suit up, but for the entirety of their lives.
Second, to those who entertained the thought, however briefly, that play should have resumed last night after Hamlin was taken away from the stadium: do better.
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