The (sports activities) world has been holding its breath ever since Damar Hamlin collapsed on the sphere on Monday Night Football through the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals sport. And whereas there have been one million takes on this scary and unlucky incident, Garrett Bush from The Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show has been the one which’s mentioned the quiet half out loud.
This is greater than a sports activities story. It’s a human rights story — and a labor challenge.
“You know what the NFL will inform you? Well, you realize what, ‘we’ll look out for the individuals like him.’ No, you received’t… The Bills proprietor Terry Pegula [is] value $6.7 billion. My query to you is, ‘NFL, when do salaries become guaranteed, if you know these young men are going out there, and they could die on that football field,” Bush asked on a recent episode of the show.
“I don’t give a rattling what your ideas and prayers are. Do the appropriate factor.,” he continued. “I’ll be damned if I’m gonna sit up there and pat Roger Goodell on his back for running this organization the way he does. They run it like a criminal organization. Sick of it. I’m tired of that.”
In his monologue, Bush — a former participant at Ohio University — mentions that Hamlin hasn’t performed lengthy sufficient to get a pension, how the payout for the incapacity coverage has been lowered, how the league denies advantages to former gamers, how a lot of the CTE settlement cash has but to be paid out, and the way pension funds have been lowered.
A fast Google search will replace you on quite a lot of the knowledge that Bush spoke about, as a lot of these items fly beneath the radar, or individuals ignore them as a result of they’re so targeted on betting on video games or fantasy soccer rosters. As we’ve discovered that Hamlin is awake, has held fingers with relations, and Facetime’d his staff, it needs to be a reminder of the place the gamers’ union ought to draw a line within the sand when it’s time for his or her subsequent collective bargaining settlement — on condition that they’ve a lengthy historical past with having issues presenting a unified technique.
If something goes to alter, it will likely be as a result of the gamers compelled the league to conform. The NFL has confirmed for many years the place they stand on this. And if you happen to want one other instance of what that appears likes, do not forget that the league’s government vice chairman of soccer operations — Troy Vincent — is out right here doubling down on the denial that the league gave the Bengals and Bills 5 minutes to heat up earlier than they had been to renew Monday’s sport, as a substitute of specializing in the issues that Bush talked about.
“I just want to be clear,” Vincent mentioned earlier within the week. “Just that suggestion alone was inappropriate, it was insensitive and, frankly, it lacked both empathy and compassion for Damar’s situation, who is still and was fighting for his life this day. It lacked complete, and it was just so insensitive to think that we were even thinking about returning to play.
“The only thing that mattered to myself, the team here, the folks in the stadium and the coaches was the health and wellness of Damar and getting those coaches back to the locker room so they could look those players in their eyes and see who they are. They were hurting, there was a lot of pain. And talking to the commissioner [Roger Goodell] and communicating with everyone, it was just important … we just couldn’t play.”
ESPN is principally calling Vincent and the NFL liars, as they’re standing agency within the reality that Joe Buck reported what the league relayed to the community.
This is the sport the NFL performs. They need you to concentrate on a he-said/he-said between them and a community as a substitute of listening to the truth that Garrett Bush has recognized the smoking gun.