John Riordan: The precarious existence of a career in sport
PRAYERS UP: A sign shows support for Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin outside Highmark Stadium on Tuesday. Picture: AP Photo/Joshua Bessex
We found ourselves a little starstruck on Monday evening when we spotted Kylian Mbappé and Achraf Hakimi settling into their VIP courtside seats right across the hardwood from us and right next to the Brooklyn Nets bench.
They were a little fashionably late, as they deserve to be, and they were refreshingly wide eyed when taking in the scene in front of them. They carried a replica Nets jersey each, bounty from a pre-game marketing collaboration with their hosts which naturally involved a photo shoot alongside one of the current leading candidates for NBA MVP / player of the year, Kevin Durant.
They were thoroughly entertained and had no need to hide it. Watching the Brooklyn big three of Durant, Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons dissect their lowly visitors, the once great San Antonio Spurs, it was a lot more enjoyable for the standout World Cup duo than their own game back in France just over 24 hours earlier where the still Messi-less Paris Saint-Germain allowed Lens to close the champions’ Ligue 1 lead to four points.
A minor glitch, I’m sure, and who could begrudge a chance to hop straight on a flight to New York City for the Golden Boot winner and his Moroccan club teammate and World Cup semi-final opponent who each snagged some of the standout memories that will stay with us from Qatar? That gutsy penalty shootout winning Panenka, that final hat-trick, why not make some time to test the waters of their worldwide renown, one a little newer to this scene than the other?
It’s a Coupe weekend in France so really all that Mbappé and Hakimi missed this week was Messi’s guard of honour at the PSG training ground on Wednesday. Maybe that was a fitting way to avoid public displays of affection for now.
The Nets stars only needed three of the four quarters to dispense with their opponents and they put on a very above average mid-season type display to entertain their guests from another code. They turned up the dial for a few kicks and giggles and coasted to their 12th win in a row, a streak that was halted two nights later at the Chicago Bulls.
When the game was still a little alive in the third quarter, the Nets marketing team decided to highlight the presence of the two footballers and give everyone in attendance yet another timeout distraction.
They played that Hakimi penalty against Spain on the big screens before cutting to a live shot of the happily beaming right back. Until that moment, we weren’t too sure how the basketball audience in attendance would react to the VIPs from the other side of the pond. Thankfully, a combination of recognition and good old fashioned cajoling from the arena announcer helped give the Moroccan a suitably enthusiastic welcome and a bucket list experience.
And then during the next timeout, an even bigger cheer greeted the Mbappé volley from three weeks ago which was followed by the real live Mbappé and an even louder cheer. The Nets players and coaches applauded him as they readied themselves to reenter the fray. The entertainment entertained, game recognising game.
More than suitably distracted on what was the final night of our Christmas and New Year’s time off, we shuffled away from our seats and into an elevator. As the doors closed, my friend told us how he had read on Twitter that a Buffalo Bills player was down and it wasn’t looking good for him. The half dozen or so strangers in the confined space pricked up their ears and opened their phones.
The full horror of what happened to Damar Hamlin began to emerge quickly over the next hour. The young Bills defensive player collapsed during an important regular season game at the Cincinnati Bengals which was being broadcast live across the US.
Similar to the Christian Eriksen incident at the Euros two summers ago, there was momentary disbelief on and off the field followed by utter panic and then a ring of team mates surrounding the efforts to revive, an athlete’s instinct to protect the dignity of their stricken comrade.
Hamlin’s football position is weirdly - and ironically in this and many instances - termed “safety”. It roughly equates to playing centre back in the other footballs and the tactical importance of this role to the team is stopping all shapes and sizes of attackers coming their way. They can be the key line of defence against a quarterback pass raining down on top of them and into the hands of the wide receiver or they might have to try and block a powerful running back barrelling straight at them.
They can be some of the best paid players in the sport because of the difficulty of their task. They also tend to boast the most well-rounded physical attributes because of the variety of challenges sent their way: pace and power, nimble and knowledgeable, athletic and alert.
NFL coverage has long adapted to moving the camera quickly away from a potentially catastrophic injury but the tackle that Hamlin shipped seemed initially innocuous. A player like him can be both a human missile (and Hamlin can truly dish it out) but also runs the risk of being hit the wrong way by a player in full flight.
In this case, he seems to have taken contact from his opponent in the wrong spot. He hopped up relatively quickly and immediately collapsed backwards, helpless and unconscious. Soon the game was suspended as the enormity of the scenario began to crystallise.
The NFL denies it but reports abounded that the teams were told they had five minutes to get ready to resume play after the ambulance was able to depart. Shots of traumatised players and ashen-faced commentators made it pretty apparent that football was over for the evening. The opposing coaches agreed not to comply with any directive to continue and the consensus to place the health of the player and the mental health of his teammates and opponents ahead of next week’s scheduling conundrums mercifully took priority.
The only time an NFL player has died on the field of play was in 1971 when the Detroit Lions wide receiver Chuck Hughes collapsed with a heart attack. In the intervening 50 years, there have been a myriad of concerns about the health of the athletes who dedicate their peak years to this brutal sport but even the prospect of a mid-game, tackle-induced death has sent deep shockwaves through the sport and through the country.
At time of writing, 60 hours on, the reports from Hamlin’s hospital bed are relatively positive. Still in critical condition and with signs of improvement, he is expected to remain under intensive care as his health care team continues to monitor and treat him.
But as always with the NFL, even if this worst case scenario has the potential to be resolved as well as possible due to the extremely glaring spotlight placed on it, the precarious athletic existence of players like Hamlin mean there are other scenarios that can be almost as bad.
Relatively new to the league, Hamlin is just 24 years old and is the NFL equivalent of a low paid intern, desperate to prove themselves in a competitive snakepit. Monday’s tackle was a freak incident but it is a career-making necessity for players existing nervously within his age range and experience level to put their bodies on the line.
His $160,000 signing bonus as a rookie won’t get a player like him too far after his career ends, especially after it’s carved up by taxes and agents. The biggest issue is that his opening salvo contract that sees him earning $825,000 this year is not guaranteed. Because he has only played two seasons of football, he has yet to earn the right to a pension and satisfactory post-career healthcare.
Under the terms of the most recent pay deal with the NFL, the players’ disabilities policy collapsed from $22,000 a month to $4,000 a month, not to mention the fact that the league brought in tougher-to-overcome barriers for eligibility while also playing hardball with the retired veterans battling the effects of head injuries sustained while playing.
And as always, those of us thirstily consuming all of this entertainment (and writing here about it) are complicit in the dangerously uncertain occupation which these mostly young Black men are trying to navigate. Hamlin's wildest dreams for his career would have mostly involved being able to enjoy a comfortable retirement with as little pain as possible. That is far from certain now.
