Zac Taylor and Sean McDermott were clearly on the same page with Damar Hamlin
Zac Taylor spoke to the media on Wednesday, marking the first time he's publicly addressed Monday night's nightmare situation. The Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills had to postpone their game after Bills defender Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field, was administered CPR, and then taken to the hospital in an ambulance.
A very emotional Taylor recounted what happened on Monday the best he could and noted that he and Sean McDermott (the Bills head coach) were thinking the exact same thing -- This game couldn't be played.
Zac Taylor said he could see how concerned the #Bills players were in the moment after Damar Hamlin went down. Says Sean McDermott told him shortly thereafter, “I need to be at the hospital for Damar. I shouldn’t be coaching this game. That, to me, provided all the clarity.”
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) January 4, 2023
Taylor has received a lot of praise over the past few days for how he handled this situation. He was the one who walked over to McDermott on the Bills' sideline to talk about things after it was reported that the teams would have five minutes to warm up.
He mentioned during his media session that he respected the way McDermott handled things with his team and his players. Taylor noted that it "really helped us get to the solution we needed to get to."
More Zac Taylor: “I really felt Sean McDermott led in that moment. He was there for his players. He processed it the right way, which was incredibly difficult, and really helped us get to the solution we needed to get to.”
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) January 4, 2023
Zac Taylor and Sean McDermott deserve praise for how they handled things on Monday
I mentioned earlier how the teams were given five minutes to warm up and Taylor was polite in sidestepping that. He said that his team simply wanted to give the Bills some space for them to process what just happened.
Zac Taylor said there was no directive for players to start warming up.
— Charlie Goldsmith (@CharlieG__) January 4, 2023
"Let's give Buffalo space to process as a team."
"There was no push for anything to happen."
This was a really difficult thing for anyone to go through and both Sean McDermott and Zac Taylor deserve all of the praise being heaped on them for how they handled this. There was no rule in place to handle a situation like this but Taylor and McDermott did what they felt was best. The game was not played and the right thing was done.
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Let's all continue to keep Damar Hamlin and his loved ones in our thoughts and prayers.