Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor praised Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott and disclosed some of the scenes from the field after Damar Hamlin was taken by ambulance to the hospital during Monday night's football game.
“Instead of playing telephone on separate sidelines, the decision was made to go over there and make sure we’re all talking together,” Taylor said, referring to the moment when he walked over to the Buffalo sideline, shortly after the ambulance left the field.
“I won’t disclose any of the private conversations Sean and I had except for this: When I got over there the first thing he said was, ‘I need to be at the hospital with Damar, and I shouldn’t be coaching this game,’ ” Taylor said.
Taylor was speaking to the media in Cincinnati in his first public comments since Monday night's game was postponed in the wake of Hamlin’s injury. He remains in critical condition in intensive care at University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
“So that to me provides all the clarity,” Taylor said of McDermott’s reaction. “Unprecedented is the word that gets thrown out a lot with this situation because that’s what it is. But in that moment, he really showed who he was, that all his focus was just on Damar and being there for him and being there for his family at the hospital. At that point, I think everything trended in the direction it needed to trend. The right decisions were made there.”
Taylor praised the medical staffs for both teams and the medical and emergency personnel at Paycor Stadium that treated Hamlin on the field.
“They were on it, they were composed, it was obviously a complicated situation on the field,” said Taylor, who went to the hospital after the game was postponed.
“Sean Smith and his crew I thought did a tremendous job handling a situation in which there was no rule book, there was no protocols for how to handle that,” Taylor said, referring to the NFL officiating crew. “Everyone on the field could feel the seriousness of the situation. They did a great job of stepping back and asking the Bills what they needed, us what we needed, giving us the space to process.”
Taylor was asked about whether he was given a directive from the NFL that the teams should begin a 5-minute warmup period to prepare for resuming the game, as was reported on the ESPN broadcast.
“I didn’t feel any directive for guys to start warming up,” he said. “It was let’s particularly give Buffalo space to process as a team because they had not done that. They had just been there for Damar. So then we’ve been through this situation a million times where there’s an injury on the field, something happens on the field, and just the natural process is you give yourself a couple minutes. There’s so much that happened that I can’t even really recall. My process of remembering is that’s what unfolded. There was no push for anything to happen.
“That’s why I wanted to divulge the situation,” Taylor said. “While everyone was on the field, first-hand, feeling and seeing the emotions happening, not one person was thinking about what was about to happen. So until that ambulance drove away, that was probably the first moment anyone thought about why we were on the field in the first place. I think everyone needed a few moments separate to process. The officials did a great job of just allowing us to do that. Then once you get wind that Buffalo needs to talk about it a little bit more, particularly Sean, that’s why I went over there. When the first thing out of Sean’s mouth was 'I need to be at the hospital with Damar,' that’s kind of a no-brainer for everybody involved in that conversation to let’s separate and let the NFL take the next steps, which they did."
The Bengals began preparations Wednesday for an important AFC North game Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens. Cincinnati is 11-4. Baltimore is 10-6.
Inside look at what happened on Monday, #Bengals head coach Zac Taylor says that #Bills coach Sean McDermott told him: "I need to be at the hospital with Damar. I shouldn't be coaching this game."🙏🙏 pic.twitter.com/MPUGE8Z9Ng
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) January 4, 2023
Taylor noted it "will be a great day" when Hamlin is able to see all the support he is receiving.
“It’s bigger than football," Taylor said. "I think Cincinnati and Buffalo are similar in that way and what the communities are about.”
