Damar Hamlin: Zac Taylor reveals Sean McDermott conversation after cardiac arrest

Bengals coach Zac Taylor has revealed the grave conversation he had with his Bills counterpart Sean McDermott after Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest on Monday night.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Taylor described how he decided to go over to the Bills’ sideline and talk with his fellow coach instead of ‘playing telephone’ following the scary ordeal.

‘I won’t disclose any of the private conversations Sean and I had except for this,’ Taylor said.

The Bills gather on the field while CPR is administered to Buffalo Bills safety Hamlin

‘When I got there, the first thing he said was, “I need to be at the hospital with Damar. I shouldn’t be coaching this game.”‘

Both sides agreed that the game would not be resumed, while the NFL has since said it won’t be made up this week ahead of the final (scheduled) week of the regular season.

And while the contest was supposed to have postseason implications for both sides, Taylor saw clearly where McDermott’s priorities lied in the moment.  

‘Unprecedented is the word that gets thrown around a lot about this situation because that’s what it is,’ he said.

McDermott told Taylor he ‘need[ed] to be at the hospital’ with Hamlin after his cardiac arrest

‘But in that moment, he really showed who he was. That all his focus was just on Damar and being there for him, being there for his family at the hospital. And at that point, I think everything trended in the direction it needed to trend and the right decisions were made there.’

Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow also spoke of his own role in the aftermath of Hamlin’s injury, which occurred in the first quarter after he tackled Cincinnati wide receiver Tee Higgins.

Hamlin got up briefly after the play before appearing wobbly and collapsing to the turf.

He was given CPR on the field and taken away in an ambulance to the hospital shortly after, where the team said he was in critical condition later that night.

The Bills said Thursday that Hamlin had shown ‘remarkable improvement’ in the last 24 hours

Burrow told media members Wednesday that Bengals captains met with Buffalo captains and made clear they didn’t want to continue playing either. 

‘One, we wanted to show our support,’ Burrow says. ‘And two, at that point there had been no decision made on the game and we wanted to go over and let them know how we were feeling about playing,’ he said.

‘Nobody wanted to continue the game in a situation like that,’ Burrow added. ‘I know how everybody would be feeling in our locker room if it was one of our guys, and I know how we were feeling and it was one of their guys. So it was a scary, emotional night.’

Play-by-play announcer Joe Buck said that he was told by an NFL representative that the game would resume after a five-minute warmup period, which NFL’s Executive Vice President of Football Operations Troy Vincent has denied.

With just six days between Week 18 and the start of the NFL’s wild card round on January 14, it looks questionable whether the game is finished at all.

Joe Burrow spoke with Bills captains to offer them ‘support’ during the terrifying ordeal

Burrow stands with the Bills regardless of what decision is made. 

‘I think whatever Buffalo would want to do would be what we would want to do as well,’ he said.

‘We’re behind them 100 percent and support them in whatever they would decide to do going forward.’

The Bills said Thursday that Hamlin appeared to be ‘neurologically intact’ and has shown ‘remarkable improvement’ in the last 24 hours, with his teammate Kaiir Elam saying he is ‘awake and showing more signs of improvement.’