CINCINNATI — An ESPN report released Monday night provided more details on how the Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills led the decision to cancel their Monday Night Football showdown after Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field.
Video captured in the tunnel between the field and the Bills' locker room that night showed referees, coaches and NFL officials speaking about their next steps. According to ESPN's report, league officials had still not decided whether or not to cancel the game. The coaches and players, though, knew what they wanted to do.
During a press conference days after the game, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor recalled walking across the field once the ambulance carrying Hamlin left for the hospital. He spoke to Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott, who immediately told him, "I need to be at the hospital with Damar ... I shouldn't be coaching this game," Taylor said.
On ESPN's broadcast, though, announcer Joe Buck said the two teams were "going to try to continue to play this game." NFL officials later disputed that statement, with the league's executive vice president of football operations, Troy Vincent, telling reporters the NFL had not decided to continue the game.
ESPN's report breaks down why Buck made that comment, saying the information came from officiating expert John Parry, who "had an open line of communication with the NFL rules analyst in the command center."
In a statement, ESPN said in part, "we reported what we were told in the moment and immediately updated fans as new information was learned. This was an unprecedented, rapidly-evolving circumstance. All night long, we refrained from speculation."
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the league's rules analyst in the command center was "adamant that at no time did he say anything related to a five-minute warmup period to John Parry. ... John is just plain wrong."
An anonymous official from one of the two teams told ESPN that Dawn Aponte, the NFL executive in the tunnel with Taylor, McDermott and the officials, was "getting pressure" from the NFL. The official said Vincent left the possibility of continuing the game open for nearly an hour.
"The league did not cancel the game," the team official said. "The Bills and the Bengals canceled the game."
Joe Buck told ESPN no one from the league ever asked him for a retraction after his original report and four additional mentions during the broadcast.
The team official said that they knew the game was not going to continue and that the league was delaying the inevitable by even having conversations about continuing. There was also a plan floated from the NFL that involved keeping the Bills in Cincinnati overnight.
"In our mind, there was nothing to be discussed. ... If they would have said, 'If you leave you're forfeiting the game,' we're still leaving," the team official said.
Days later, when the world received positive news about Hamlin's condition, players on both teams echoed the sentiment that the decision to cancel was led by the Bills and Bengals.
Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow said Bengals players spoke to Bills players while their coaches were in the tunnel, "(making) sure they knew that we felt the same way they did" about not going back out on the field.
The league officially canceled the game Thursday night.
