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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Charles Curtis

ESPN’s coverage of Damar Hamlin’s collapse was a master class in how to cover a difficult story

It was said many, many times over the course of Monday night and through Tuesday, and it was correct every time: ESPN handled the coverage of Damar Hamlin’s collapse perfectly.

It was the most difficult of assignments: A group of broadcasters, reporters, producers and everyone in between suddenly asked to fill air time with not much information to go off of beyond what had happened to the Buffalo Bills safety on the field, along with the questions of what would happen next.

From the crew on site for the game at Paycor Stadium to the studio group to Scott Van Pelt’s show, no one held back on the emotion and humanity of what we all witnessed.

There are many moments to spotlight, but here are a few, starting with Booger McFarland, who was in the Monday Night Countdown studio with Suzy Kolber and Adam Schefter:

Lisa Salters mixed in her emotions with what she saw as the scene unfolded:

Ryan Clark’s message was an important one:

The broadcast went back to Joe Buck and Troy Aikman a few times throughout the night and they handled it somberly:

Van Pelt, as always, had the right things to say to sum it all up:

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