Damar Hamlin's Cardiac Arrest and the Cancelled Game

Timeline

1. Jan 2, 2023, 8:56 p.m. ETHamlin collapses after tackling Tee Higgins; staff begin CPR and use a defibrillator.
2. About 9:14 p.m.Broadcasters report players have been given five minutes to prepare to resume; no one resumes.
3. About 10 p.m.The NFL officially suspends the game.
4. Jan 3, 2023The NFL's Troy Vincent says the league never considered resuming play.
5. Jan 5, 2023The NFL announces the game will not be resumed.
6. Jan 6, 2023Owners approve a resolution adjusting the AFC playoffs, including a possible neutral-site championship game.
7. Apr 18, 2023Hamlin is cleared to return to football.

The ethical issues

• The show must go on: whether play should continue after a life-threatening injury.
• Emergency preparedness: the value of on-site medical plans and defibrillators.
• Player voice: who decides when players are able to play.
• Competitive fairness: how to handle unequal schedules after a cancellation.
• Transparency: conflicting accounts of what the league told teams.

Stakeholders

Stakeholder	Interests & obligations
Damar Hamlin and his family	His survival, recovery and future.
Bills and Bengals players	Their emotional and physical capacity to play.
NFL	Competitive integrity, broadcasting obligations and reputation.
NFLPA	Players' safety and voice.
Other AFC teams	Fair playoff seeding.
Fans and broadcasters	The game, but also their response to a human crisis.

The case

On January 2, 2023, the Buffalo Bills played the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday Night Football. Both teams were contending for the top seed in the AFC. At 8:56 p.m. Eastern, Bills safety Damar Hamlin, 24, tackled receiver Tee Higgins, whose shoulder struck Hamlin’s chest. Hamlin stood up, then collapsed backward.^[1][2]

Background

Hamlin grew up in McKees Rocks, near Pittsburgh, and played college football at the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned a communication degree.^[1] The Bills drafted him in the sixth round in 2021, and he became a starting safety in 2022 after Micah Hyde’s season-ending injury.^[1] In 2020 he started a Christmas toy drive in his hometown, with a GoFundMe goal of $2,500.^[1]

The public response was immediate. Fans gathered outside the hospital, and Bills quarterback Josh Allen urged people to “pray for our brother.” Higgins and Bengals receiver Ja’Marr Chase reached out to Hamlin’s family. Cincinnati’s stadium and downtown landmarks were lit blue in his honor.^[1] Donations poured into the toy-drive fundraiser, including from dozens of NFL players, coaches and executives. By January 12 it had raised more than $8.7 million, forcing the small foundation behind it to rethink its governance and tax status.^[1]

The rules and governance

The league’s schedule assumed every team would play 17 games, and there was no ready procedure for a game abandoned because a player’s life was in danger. On the night, the league suspended the game after consulting the NFL Players Association, and it cancelled the game three days later.^[2][3] The playoff fixes required the owners to vote on a special resolution. It provided for a neutral-site AFC Championship Game if the Bills or Chiefs, who might have been denied home-field advantage by the missing game, met in certain combinations, and a coin toss if the Bengals and Ravens met in the wild-card round.^[4][5]

The medical response on the field was later honored. In July 2023 Hamlin presented the Pat Tillman Award to the Bills training staff at the ESPYs.^[1]

On the field

Trainers and paramedics reached Hamlin within seconds. They performed CPR and used an automated external defibrillator for about ten minutes on the field, and his heartbeat was restored. Players from both teams knelt and wept as millions watched on television. An ambulance took him to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition.^[1][2]

Resume or stop?

At about 9:14 p.m., ESPN reported that players were returning to the field. Broadcaster Joe Buck said the teams had “been given five minutes to, quote unquote, get ready to go back to playing,” according to “the word we get from the league.” Bengals coach Zac Taylor crossed the field to speak with Bills coach Sean McDermott, and both teams went to their locker rooms. The NFL announced the game was suspended at about 10 p.m., saying it had consulted the players’ union.^[2]

After midnight, NFL executive Troy Vincent said the league had never considered resuming. “It never crossed our mind to talk about warming up to resume play,” he said. A local station noted that a five-minute warm-up is standard after most delays.^[2]

Cancellation and the playoffs

On January 5, the NFL announced the game would not be resumed.^[3][6] That left the Bills and Bengals with 16 games each while other teams played 17, affecting playoff seeding. On January 6, owners approved a resolution that would move the AFC Championship Game to a neutral site in certain scenarios. It also set out a coin toss to decide the site of a possible Bengals–Ravens wild-card game.^[4][5]

The league’s announcement explained its reasoning. Commissioner Roger Goodell decided after speaking with both clubs and NFL Players Association leadership.^[3] Finishing the game “will have no effect on which clubs qualify for the postseason,” the league said, but it “would require postponing the start of the playoffs for one week, thereby affecting all 14 clubs that qualify.” Deciding before the final weekend let every club “know the playoff possibilities.”^[3] Goodell said: “This has been a very difficult week. We continue to focus on the recovery of Damar Hamlin.” He also commended “the amazing work of the medical personnel.”^[3] On the playoff changes, he said, “I recognize that there is no perfect solution.” The proposal, he said, addressed “the most significant potential equitable issues created by the difficult, but necessary, decision not to play the game under these extraordinary circumstances.”^[3]

The resolution’s text set out the competitive problem precisely. Its preamble noted that “multiple AFC clubs had an opportunity to be the number one seed” when the game was cancelled. It aimed “to mitigate a possible competitive inequity” from seeding teams that had played different numbers of games.^[5] It applied “for the 2022 season only.” A neutral site would be used only if the finalists had played different numbers of games and the lower seed could have been the top seed over a full 17-game season.^[5] The coin-toss clause addressed a specific anomaly. If Baltimore beat Cincinnati in Week 18, it would have beaten its division rival twice. It still could not host a playoff game, because Cincinnati’s winning percentage over 16 games would be higher than Baltimore’s over 17.^[3][5] Even so, all teams would “retain their seeding as determined by the regular season winning percentage.”^[5] The resolution was submitted by the Commissioner’s Office with the Competition Committee’s support.^[5]

Recovery

Hamlin woke and was breathing on his own within days. He was discharged on January 9 and transferred to a hospital in Buffalo, then went home.^[1] He later confirmed he had experienced commotio cordis, a rare disruption of heart rhythm caused by a blow to the chest at a precise moment in the heartbeat.^[1][7] A 2012 clinical review found that victims are typically young and otherwise healthy, show no structural heart damage at autopsy, and most often suffer ventricular fibrillation. It also found that early defibrillation improves survival. In the registry cases it analyzed, resuscitation within three minutes produced a 25% survival rate, which fell to 3% when resuscitation was delayed beyond three minutes.^[7] Those figures show why the speed of the on-field response mattered. He was cleared to play in April 2023 and returned to the NFL. He also campaigned for wider access to defibrillators.^[1]

Aftermath

Hamlin attended the Bills’ playoff game against the Bengals as a spectator.^[1] He backed the Access to AEDs Act, which would help schools obtain and use defibrillators.^[1] He finished as runner-up to Joe Flacco for AP Comeback Player of the Year, and in March 2025 he re-signed with the Bills.^[1]

The core dilemma

When a player’s life is at risk on the field, competition becomes secondary. But leagues also have schedules, broadcast contracts and competitive rules. How should a league decide whether a game continues, who gets a say, and how to restore fairness if it cannot be completed?

Competing values

• Human welfare vs. competition: players’ trauma against completing the schedule.
• Player voice vs. league authority: who decides when athletes can play.
• Fairness vs. practicality: an equal schedule against the impossibility of replaying the game.
• Transparency vs. reputation: honest accounts of the league’s decisions.

Strongest arguments

For the league’s handling: the game was stopped, never resumed, and cancelled, and the playoff adjustments tried to limit unfairness. The NFL said it consulted the union, and its emergency medical plan likely saved Hamlin’s life.

For criticism: even a brief suggestion of resuming play showed instincts that put the game first. The coaches, not the league, appeared to lead the decision to leave the field. The playoff resolution affected teams that had no role in the game.

Applying the frameworks

Ethics of care

The care lens focuses on Hamlin, his family, and the players who watched him receive CPR. It asks whether those in authority gave priority to their emotional state over the schedule. The coaches’ decision to talk face to face and lead their teams off the field was an act of care. The lens questions any suggestion, whether real or perceived, that the game would resume within minutes.

Utilitarian

Consequentialists weigh the costs of cancelling (an unequal schedule, disputed playoff seeding, lost revenue) against the costs of resuming: psychological harm to players, risk of further injury when players are distracted, and damage to public trust. The owners’ playoff resolution tried to reduce the unfairness of the cancellation, accepting imperfect fixes over a worse alternative.

Virtue ethics

Virtue ethics looks at character under pressure: the skill and composure of the medical staff, the compassion of players on both sides, and the leadership of two coaches who chose to act together. It also asks whether league communications showed honesty when the “five minutes” report spread, and whether the outpouring of donations reflected or tested the integrity of the foundation that received them.

Walk it through: the Simple Decision Model

1. Spot the issue. You are an NFL operations executive at 9:15 p.m. on January 2, 2023. Hamlin has just left in an ambulance. The stakeholders include Hamlin and his family, both teams, game officials, fans in the stadium and at home, broadcasters and the other AFC contenders. The codes in play are game-operations rules, the CBA, and medical protocols.
2. Gather facts. What do you know about Hamlin’s condition and the players’ state of mind? Who is speaking for the players? Is schedule pressure shaping your thinking, even without your noticing?
3. Test options. Options: (a) resume after a warm-up; (b) postpone to the next day or later; (c) suspend now and decide later whether to cancel. Weigh care for players against fairness and the season’s schedule.
4. Check codes and law. Would your decision be defensible if players and the public could hear your reasoning? Have you consulted the union and the coaches?
5. Decide and document. Record who was consulted and when, and correct any public misinformation quickly.
6. Communicate and follow up. Announce the decision clearly, provide counseling for players and staff on both teams, and develop a fair procedure for the playoff consequences.

What’s settled and what’s contested

• Settled: the timeline of Hamlin’s collapse and treatment; the cancellation; the playoff resolution; his recovery.
• Contested: whether the league ever intended to resume; whether the playoff adjustments were fair.

Why this case matters

The Hamlin case is a rare example of a major league stopping and cancelling a game for a player’s welfare. It shows how emergency preparation saves lives, and why players should have a voice when sport collides with a human crisis.

Key terms

Duty of care

The responsibility of coaches, organizations and institutions to protect the health, safety and well-being of those in their charge. It is not a license for total control.

Stakeholders

Everyone with something at stake in a decision: athletes, coaches, parents, officials, fans, employees, sponsors, media, communities and regulators, including the less visible ones.

Crisis ethics

The obligations that apply when an organization is under pressure: honesty, timeliness, accountability and care for those harmed.

“Right” vs. “good”

Duty-based thinking asks what is right; outcome-based thinking asks what produces the most good. Dilemmas arise when the two point in different directions.

Definitions from the Ethics Cases glossary.

Discussion questions

1. Early reports said players were given five minutes to warm up; the NFL denied it. Why do accounts like this matter, even if the league never intended to resume?
2. Who should decide whether a game resumes after a traumatic event: the league, the coaches, the players, or medical staff?
3. Was the NFL's solution of adjusting the playoff format fair to teams that were not involved? What alternatives were there?
4. Hamlin's survival depended on rapid CPR and defibrillation. What obligations do youth and amateur sports have to ensure similar preparation?
5. How should broadcasters cover a life-threatening injury in a live event?

Sources

1. Damar Hamlin — Wikipedia
2. The Bills-Bengals game looked like it might resume. Then the players left the field — NPR
3. Week 17 Buffalo-Cincinnati game will not be resumed; neutral AFC Championship Game site being considered — NFL.com
4. NFL owners approve resolution to adjust AFC playoffs, including potential neutral title game site — NFL.com
5. 2023 Resolution G-1 (AFC postseason adjustments) — National Football League
6. N.F.L. Cancels Bills-Bengals Game — The New York Times
7. Commotio Cordis — Sports Health (PMC)