Bill Maher didn’t say anything on Real Time with Bill Maher about Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, he just put it in his upcoming book. And now he’s talked about it, more than a year after the fact, on his Club Random podcast. But to have such a strong take on the incident that saw Hamlin have to be resuscitated on the field, Maher has a lot of trouble reciting the facts.
Maher thought that Hamlin went down after suffering a cardiac arrest on the opening kickoff. In fact, that happened when he tackled Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins in a 7-3 game with just under six minutes to play in the first quarter.
After requiring immediate emergency medical treatment that saw Hamlin’s life saved on the field, the two teams elected to suspend play. There were 23 minutes in between Hamlin collapsing and leaving the field on an ambulance, and the head coaches of both teams conferred that there was no way the game could be continued.
Well, everyone was of that unanimous opinion — except Bill Maher.
“The first 15 minutes, the broadcasters (Joe Buck and Troy Aikman) were of the opinion that, ‘Well, we’ll do this, and then we’ll play the game,'” Maher said, retelling the events to his guest, Dana White. “No one was saying immediately, ‘Well, we can’t play this game.’ Then, we saw the players on the sidewalk; some of them were upset and crying. Then, they go to the locker room to get their head together. And by the time night fell on this event, the one true opinion was this game could not have been played because that’s how America reacts to things.”
Hamlin nearly died. But Maher still thought the game should have gone on.
“Now, I’m of the opinion that they should’ve played the game because I don’t think it would have hurt the person they cared about, and we cared about,” Maher added. “And, by the way, he’s fine — which is the good part of the story.”
It’s shocking to hear Maher downplay Damar Hamlin’s situation as if he suffered a high-ankle sprain and his status to return to the game in question was questionable. The reality is much more severe.
First responders heroically performed CPR, used an automated defibrillator (AED), and administered other treatments on the field for a critical 10 minutes. Rushed to the hospital, Hamlin was initially reported to be in critical condition and required a breathing tube. Later that night, the Bills confirmed Hamlin had suffered cardiac arrest, but his heartbeat was fortunately restored on the field.
Doctors sedated Hamlin and placed him on a ventilator to assist his breathing. To further aid his recovery, he was positioned on his stomach. By Jan. 5, Hamlin was awake and showing signs of improvement.
Maher seems to have missed entirely the gravity of the situation. Suggesting the game could continue implies a shocking disregard for the emotional well-being of the players. The idea that they could just switch gears and perform at their best—and not be mentally checked out—after witnessing a teammate suffer cardiac arrest is absurd. Continuing the game under such circumstances would be insensitive and demonstrably dangerous in a sport that relies so heavily on focus and clear thinking.
“But why cancel the game?” Maher asked. “All those fans who lived for that game all year long and the people who did whatever they could to get out to the stadium and just leave with a ticket stub. And they kept saying—and this is such bad logic—’The important thing is Damar.’
“Absolutely. Of course, it is. Of course, it is. How does that affect the game? He’s in the hospital. Unless the doctors are watching the game out of the corner of their eye while they’re operating on him, I don’t think it’s going to affect anything.”
Maher then referred to FS1 host Skip Bayless’s infamous tweet. Despite the opinion at the time that there was no possible way they could’ve continued playing. Bayless took the road less traveled and insensitively wondered how the NFL could logistically postpone the game, considering the playoff implications carried by the matchup.
That led to his former Undisputed co-host Shannon Sharpe being unexpectedly absent from their next show after the tweet. When he ultimately returned a day later, it sparked one of the most awkward moments in sports debate show history.
Fireworks to start Undisputed over Skip’s tweet pic.twitter.com/CnMBvgUPP3
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 4, 2023
“Skip Bayless suggested that maybe we should have played the game, and they wanted to cancel him for just entertaining an idea that 24 hours earlier was what everybody thought was going to happen,” said Maher. “And then we all just like f****** sheep got behind this idea that somehow it would like— I don’t know— be disrespectful to the guy in the hospital.
“By the way, he got it. Because when he woke up, you know, the first thing he said was? ‘Did we win?’ No, because you live in Babyland, Damar, so nobody played the game.”
Ah yes, it’s woke to suspend a football game because someone nearly died and had to be brought back to life on the field. Got it.
“Football prides itself on being the tough guy sport,” Maher continued. “This is the one we play, rain or shine…I mean, I remember when I was a kid, and they’d be playing in the mud, and I thought this was the greatest thing in the world: watch them slide 20 yards in the mud. It’s just smashmouth football. It’s not for the faint of heart. And that’s what we do. We’re football. I just thought—and also c’mon—there’s no crying in football.”
The last thing Dana White wants to see is more of the “p***ification of this country.” We’re glad that deciding not to play a football game because someone almost died falls under that purview.
“If they really cared that much about the safety of the players, they wouldn’t cancel the game,” Maher argued. “They’d cancel the sport. And they shouldn’t.”
[Club Random with Bill Maher on YouTube]
