RENTON, Wash. — As Seahawks coach Pete Carroll put it, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin’s collapse on the field because of cardiac arrest Monday night “sent a real shock wave through all of the football world.”
But roughly 40 hours after Seahawks coaches and players watched the events in Cincinnati in shock, they tried to regain a sense of normalcy as they prepare for what is, in a football sense, their most important game of the year Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams.
And that effort to get back to business-as-usual — if that’s possible this week — began at 10 a.m. Wednesday as Carroll led a team meeting with team physician Jon Drezner that featured a refresher of the league’s gameday safety protocols.
In the wake of the Hamlin incident, in which he was reported to have been resuscitated on the field, the league has noted that a medical staff of up to 30 — including trainers, physicians and EMTs — is in attendance at every game.
Drezner walked the Seahawks through the protocol, which since 2017 has included a 60-minute meeting before every game of all the on-site medical personnel.
That meeting, typically held an hour before the game begins in the officials locker room, was instituted in part to make it easier for all involved to quickly identify who they may need to work with in the case of an emergency.
“To have that face-to-face time and for me personally it’s important to know who I am going to be working with in case there is an emergency,” said Drezner, who is also the director of the center for sports cardiology at the University of Washington. “… Shaking their hands, seeing them face-to-face, knowing who I’m going to call for help is important, and we do that before every game.”
The NFL cited those meetings as likely aiding in the quick work done in 2017 when Chicago Bears tight end Zach Miller suffered a dislocated knee that left him with a torn artery, and preventing him from possibly losing his leg.
At those 60-minute meetings, all involved also run through the official emergency action plan that all teams are required to have in writing and practice annually. Drezner said the Seahawks practice their EPA once each year at Lumen Field and also at the team’s practice facility in Renton.
“It was a very powerful meeting with the players,” Drezner said. “And I had an opportunity to talk to the players about what we do as a Seahawks medical staff to prepare our athletic trainers, our paramedics, our airway physicians on the sidelines. How we rehearse. And the same way they run plays, we are training for the ‘what if?’ just in case there is an emergency.”
Carroll said he thought bringing in Drezner “was necessary” to offer at least some reassurance to players.
“We weren’t looking for answers; we’re just looking for kind of just some solace in all of this,” Carroll said.
And as Carroll said all players process an event such as Monday’s differently, so too did they react differently to the team’s attempt to reassure them on Wednesday.
Receiver DK Metcalf said he didn’t need any reassurance because he already had total confidence in the protocols of the team and the league.
“I know what they go through on Sundays and preparing for a game,” Metcalf said.
But safety Quandre Diggs, who suffered a broken fibula and dislocated ankle in a game at Arizona last year, said the meeting was “definitely helpful” to be reminded of all the support that is available.
“It was just a rare event,” Diggs said of Hamlin’s injury. “Those guys have a job just like we have a job, and they do it to the best of their abilities. We trust those guys with our lives, and I am glad those guys and NFL doctors were able to bring him back to life and keep him alive. It was dope seeing that this morning.”
But part of Carroll’s broader message to the players is that they literally have a job to do, and in that vein, he reminded them that there are other professions that also carry significant risks.
“What we’re trying to address is the reality of the game that we’re involved with,” he said. “And we’ve all bought into playing this game, we’ve built our whole lives around it. And whereas we always know that there’s risks, we’re not always faced with the reality that the risks are there. And this moment does remind us to do that again. And realize that this is a dangerous game that we play.”
Carroll said he can draw on the experience of having been the defensive coordinator with the New York Jets in 1992 when defensive lineman Dennis Byrd was paralyzed on the field. Byrd recovered to be able to walk again, memorably walking to midfield as an honorary captain for a coin toss the following year.
“That’s the choice that we make (to play football),” Carroll said. “We make this choice and make this to take on this risk.”
Or as Metcalf said, “We know what we signed up for every time we go out there and put on our helmet and step on the field. It’s just a risk that we all live with.”
But knowing that, Carroll said, is why it’s important in times such as this to know that they can lean on each other, and coaches and team personnel, for support.
“One of the things that immediately happened with our players is they went right to group texting and talking about how much they appreciate one another and how much they love each other and how much I’ll be there for you,” Carroll said.
Hamlin’s injury was also a moment when the league’s 1,696 players on active rosters became one.
In Los Angeles, Bobby Wagner said he recalled a moment during his Seahawks career — a neck injury in 2015 that ended the career of receiver Ricardo Lockette in a game in Dallas — as a reminder of what can happen, but also of how everyone working together can prevent a worse tragedy.
“If the Seahawks didn’t do everything that they did — one wrong move, one wrong thing — Ricardo wouldn’t even be here today,” Wagner told reporters in Los Angeles.
“It’s a job to do, at the end of the day,” Wagner said. “And you find a way to do it.”
