NFL handles player's catastrophic injury the right way

The NFL suspended the Bills-Bengals game in the first quarter as shellshocked players prayed for a teammate or rival. Football wasn’t important, even for two teams talented enough to win the Super Bowl.

Stopping play might have seemed like the obvious and inevitable decision, but the NFL has a long history of callousness toward its breadwinners — the athletes.

In 1963, league Commissioner Pete Rozelle ordered games to be played two days after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas. Stunned players weren’t in the mood for football any more than a grieving public was. They had to take the field or face retribution.

The death in 1971 of Chuck Hughes of the Detroit Lions brought more criticism to the league. A 28-year-old wide receiver, Hughes had an undetected heart disease called arteriosclerosis. He collapsed during a game against the Chicago Bears.

Shaken players were told to finish the final 62 seconds of the game, won by the Bears. Bob Wallace of the Chicago team had been a college teammate of Hughes at Texas Western, now Texas at El Paso. “I didn’t want to play anymore. I wished they’d called the damned game off,” Wallace said.

Team doctors for the Lions would say Hughes probably was dead when he fell to the field at Detroit’s Tiger Stadium. His death was announced 50 minutes after the game ended.

A more insidious decision was the NFL’s decadeslong refusal to acknowledge concussions as a threat to players’ health. Well into the 1990s, then-Commissioner Paul Tagliabue claimed the NFL had one concussion “every three or four games.”

The NFL got away with disregard for players’ health for many reasons. Foremost among them is anyone who reaches the NFL is a ferocious competitor who wants to be on the field. But players also fear being displaced if they sit out because of injury.

One reason I’m a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers is because coach Mike Tomlin will bench valuable players if their health is at risk. He did it with Ryan Clark, who was a starting safety of the Steelers.

Clark carries sickle cell trait, which can negatively affect red blood cells. While playing a game in Denver’s mile-high altitude, Clark became so ill his spleen and gallbladder had to be removed.

The Steelers some years later returned to Denver for a playoff game against the Broncos. Clark begged to play. Tomlin wouldn’t allow it. “This is a big game for us, but it’s still a game,” Tomlin said. The Steelers lost as Clark watched from the sideline.

Many NFL coaches canceled their scheduled media briefings Tuesday because of Hamlin’s injury. Tomlin went ahead with his. Hamlin is from McKees Rocks, Pa., a gritty suburb of Pittsburgh, and he and Tomlin are close.

“I’ve known that guy probably since he was about 12,” Tomlin said. “Just got a lot of respect and love for him as a human being.”

Having worked in Pittsburgh for many years, I also saw that city as the epicenter of the NFL’s denial of the damage concussions did to players.

Mike Webster, or simply Iron Mike, played in the NFL for 17 years, 1974-90, all but one with the Steelers. His memory and his health degenerated rapidly, and he died at age 50. A forensic pathologist studied Webster’s brain and concluded concussions were the root cause of the former player’s dementia and depression.

To this day, diagnosis and treatment of concussions is an ongoing source of criticism for the NFL. Tua Tagovailoa, quarterback of the Miami Dolphins, is at the center of the storm. Many wonder if he was rushed back onto the field this season. One of Tagovailoa’s reactions to an injury was almost as frightening as Hamlin’s.

The NFL, a spectacle of strong and fast gladiators, is the main form of entertainment for millions, me included. I feel guilty about that after watching Hamlin collapse Monday night.

For once, though, the NFL reacted perfectly. Hamlin has a lot to live for. It would be good to see him back in a packed stadium, wearing street clothes and thanking the people who kept him alive.