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Joe Buck pushes back on NFL’s denial of five minute warm-up after Damar Hamlin collapse

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The NFL and Joe Buck are squabbling over what was said after Damar Hamlin's injury
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen (17) pauses as Damar Hamlin is examined during the first half of an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Monday, Jan. 2, 2023, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean)

In the wake of the harrowing Monday Night Football incident with Damar Hamlin, the public continues to await news of his recovery and the NFL tries to respectfully look forward to Week 18. However, a minor squabble has emerged between the league and Joe Buck, who was calling the game for ESPN/ABC, over the league’s handling of the situation in the immediate aftermath. 

While Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin was lying on the field being attended to by on-site paramedics, Joe Buck announced that the players would have five minutes to warm up before play resumed. 

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In a video edited together by Tim Burke on Twitter, you can hear Buck announce multiple times that the league informed them the players would have five minutes to warm up. Even as Buck announced this, Joe Burrow is seen throwing passes with his helmet on while Josh Allen sits on the bench, utterly distraught. 

However, it’s clear from the tone of Buck’s voice that he is surprised by the decision, and that the players and coaches on the field were not complying with that timeframe. 

In a conference call with media late on Monday night, Troy Vincent, who is a former safety for the Philadelphia Eagles and the current Vice President of football operations, denied that the league ever put a window to restart the game.

“There was no time period for the players to get warmed up. … It never crossed our mind to talk about warming up to resume play. That’s ridiculous. That’s insensitive. That’s not a place we should ever be in,” Vincent told reporters.

Yet, on Tuesday, ESPN and Joe Buck pushed back on the NFL. In a statement shared by Jeff Howe of The Athletic, ESPN said, “There was constant communication in real time between ESPN and league and game officials. As a result of that, 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.” 

Vincent responded to this as well, stating that he was “the center communicator [at the time] to Shawn Smith the referee, who is communicating with both head coaches.” Vincent insists that at no time did he “give any directive to getting the players ready to play.”

Vincent claims his only concern was ” to get both coaches together and ask that they take their teams to the locker room.”

However, even Vincent’s recent claim is hard to fully believe. The players were on the field for over 20 minutes before they went to the locker room. Television crews showed Sean McDermott talking to his team and then Stefon Diggs trying to get his team motivated while Joe Burrow threw passes on the sideline. 

It’s clear that these were not men who were told to go to the locker room at that point. By that time, Joe Buck had already announced the five-minute warm-up period twice. So clearly the NFL had not communicated its message to go to the locker room but somebody had communicated something to Joe Buck about players warming up.

On television, you could also see Bengals head coach Zac Taylor walk over to Sean McDermott before the teams headed into the locker room. The discussion on the field would imply they were not directed to go to the locker room but were discussing the possibility of doing so together. Perhaps at the NFL’s insistence but perhaps at their own. 

It still doesn’t account for the fact that Buck had information about a warm-up period before the referees spoke to the coaches about going to the locker room. If that was the NFL’s “only concern” then it’s confusing as to why it took 20 minutes for it to happen. 

The league’s denial that it mentioned the five-minute warm-up is most likely just them trying to save face in the midst of Hamlin’s recovery. Giving the players just five minutes to warm up while a player has to be resuscitated on the field would obviously be seen by many as being callous.

Yet, it’s highly unlikely Buck made up the five-minute timeframe and then repeated it multiple times on the broadcast. It’s far more likely that somebody gave him that information, but we simply don’t know who and how high up in the league that person was. 

It’s also understandable that the NFL would have passed on that message to ESPN and the game officials since they were likely not aware of the extent of the injury to Hamlin. Like many people watching the game, it was unclear just how serious the injury was until minutes after Hamlin was down. Yet, instead of acknowledging that this was the case, the league seems to be implying that Joe Buck and ESPN fabricated a timeframe.

It’s just another weird by the NFL in a sadly long history of poor decisions. 

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Joe Buck pushes back on the NFL's denial
Joe Buck announced the Monday Night Football game for ESPN/ABC (wikimedia commons)