ESPN “stood behind” play-by-play voice Joe Buck and the information that he repeatedly shared that the NFL had “given the directive for players to warm up for five minutes for a restart” following Bills S Damar Hamlin’s collapse during “MNF,” according to Chad Finn of the BOSTON GLOBE. ESPN said there was “constant communication in real time between ESPN and league and game officials. As a result of that, we reported what we were told in the moment and immediately updated fans as new information was learned.” According to sources, ESPN had “a direct line to the NFL throughout the night, which is standard protocol, and in that time the league never asked the network or Buck to walk back the comments about a five-minute window.” During the late-night conference call, NFL EVP/Football Operations Troy Vincent said that the league “made no such declaration of a warm-up window.” Vincent said he was “not sure where that came from.” In the moments after the ambulance departed for the hospital, it “certainly looked like the players had been given notice that the game would resume.” At one point, as Buck mentioned the warm-up window, Bengals QB Joe Burrow “began throwing passes," while Bills WR Stefon Diggs "gave an emotional speech to his teammates on the sideline” (BOSTON GLOBE, 1/3).
WARMING UP: Buck said that the information about the game resuming “came from ESPN’s rules expert John Parry, who was in direct communication with the league.” Buck: “They said they’re going to give five minutes of a warm-up to these players to get ready.” Marchand noted ESPN showed Burrow "throwing as if he expected the game to continue" (N.Y. POST, 1/3). In San Diego, Bryce Miller wrote if ESPN’s reports “about a quick warmup were incorrect, why didn’t the NFL contact them as they repeated it multiple times?” Miller: “Why in the world would ESPN make that up or act that recklessly?” Given the “level of care and restraint the network demonstrated throughout, it strained plausibility” (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 1/3).
