Damar Hamlin: Football, Injuries, Betting, and Mamas
I wish I could share why I watch violent professional football in one sentence.
I watched Buffalo Bills’ safety Damar Hamlin collapse on the football field during the first quarter of the nationally televised game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
I watched him be resuscitated in front of his mama. Sure, the life-saving procedure happened in front of millions, but it happening in front of his mother is what devastated me the most.
Why does a Mama from the Midwest watch?
FOOTBALL CONNECTIONS:
Both of my sons watch football and it’s a way to connect with them. I don’t discuss plays because I don’t understand the basic rules of the game. I discuss football players with them.
My youngest son was at the game in which Damar Hamlin hit Tee Higgins, stood up, and then collapsed. We shared our collective devastation.
We discuss popular Cincinnati Bengals players like Ja’Marr Chase and Joe Burrows. My sons and I love the success the duo is having.
My son is a “Marr” after you circumcise the first half of his name. I call him “Marr”, and I’m sure people call Ja’Marr and Damar “Marr” too. Ja’Marr reminds me of my son, “Marr.”
I like discussing Joe Burrows’ fashion sense with them. Did you see the coat/suit he wore to the Super Bowl? Did you know the shades he wears are knock-offs?
FOOTBALL FOOD:
Game day snacks are the best! When I occasionally go to a game day party, it’s for the food. You are allowed to eat unhealthy foods like buffalo wings, buffalo dip, nachos and cheese, dips and chips, pizza, and to drink IPAs on game day. It’s in the rule book. Look it up. A game day party, greasy food aside, enables me to make more connections with family and friends who I don’t see often.
CINCINNATI BENGALS FANS CONNECTIONS:
Kurt Streeter wrote in his New York column titled “We’re All Complicit in the N.F.L.’s Violent Spectacle,” “Football, of course, exists at the apex of American sport. It is our great elixir, the weekly fall-to-winter festival that brings more of us together than any other sport. In a nation divided, the game remains a unifying force, a magnet drawing every race, orientation, and class.”
Cincinnati is not divided on game day, especially when the team is winning. You see jersey-wearing, smiling people everywhere.
SPORTS BETTING HAS TAKEN OVER OHIO
Cincinnati is flooded with TV commercials from celebrities like Kevin Hart and Jamie Foxx. Social media is tracking our locations and sending commercials, and billboards are everywhere.
You can’t escape the too-good-to-be-true offers coming from sports betting companies. For the first time in my life, I bet on a sporting event. I bet that the Cincinnati Bengals would at least score one point in the game against the Buffalo Bills. One point, several injuries.
SPORTS BETTING GLITTERS
It’s not gold. It brings joy and pain. Just a few minutes into the game before Damar Hamlin died and had to be resuscitated, another player lay face down due to injuries.
I realized two things:
1) Something bad happened, judging from the silence from the fans, Hamlin’s Buffalo Bills teammate’s reactions, and the conversations from the sports commentators.
2) I don’t ordinarily watch football. Football watches me. At a recent game day party at a family member’s house, I sat on the patio next to the pool eating and drinking. I didn’t watch one play of the game. This is the norm for me. The only time I go near a TV is when I hear exciting screaming, which indicates my hometown team has scored.
This game in which Hamlin was injured would have been no different except…the Bengals needed to score one point, and I was watching because I bet a whopping $5, and I wanted to win.
After Hamlin was injured, I had a panic attack and began blaming the intense brutality in this game on sports betting coming to Ohio.
My oldest son reminded me that people have always been betting on games, they just go a town or two over.
TWITTERVERSE
After the injury, I left the party and climbed into my campervan and searched Twitter to get snippets of news sources I trust. That’s when I ran across a couple of Twitter feuds about vax and unvaccinated players.
Yep, back to hometown and world politics. I clicked off, refusing to go down a rabbit hole.
As a mother of two adult sons, my mind rode in the ambulance with Damar Hamlin’s mother.
Her Marr could be my Marr because my son played football in high school.
Reports are that Damar Hamlin’s condition is improving. It’s good news for sure.
I’m keeping Damar Hamlin in my thoughts and sending healing energy to his mother and father and to the Buffalo Bills.
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