As the frightening scene involving Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin unfolded Monday night in Cincinnati, Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson watched with tremendous concern.
Preparing for Saturday night's showdown with the Tennessee Titans -- a de facto AFC South title game -- no longer mattered to the first-year Jags coach. Like the rest of the viewing audience, his focus turned toward Hamlin.
"(I) had the Monday night game on my TV, and as I was watching it, I thought, initially, it was a routine play," Pederson explained Wednesday on NFL Network's Good Morning Football. "Unfortunately, you see guys go down from time to time. Then you saw the reaction. You saw the reaction from players, the attention from the sideline. How people responded was different.
"I've been around this game a long, long time. Obviously, been around the NFL for 30-plus years and never seen a situation like this. To see the reaction of the players and the coaches, you knew something more was going on. And for me, everything just stopped. I was just focused on the TV and trying to get as much information from Troy (Aikman) and Joe (Buck) and some of the guys on the network that night. But as we found out, it escalated rather quickly. Everything kind of went away, and life became the most important thing at that time."
Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle in the first quarter of Monday's game against the Bengals. He received CPR while on the field, where, according to the Bills, his heartbeat was restored before he was transported via ambulance to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. As of Wednesday, Hamlin remains in the hospital's intensive care unit in critical condition, but has shown "signs of improvement."
As medical personnel attended to Hamlin on Monday night, many players from both teams became visibly emotional. Game officials spoke with both Bills head coach Sean McDermott and Bengals head coach Zac Taylor. The decision was then made to suspend play, with players and coaches exiting the field to the locker room, before the game was ultimately postponed.
Pederson commended the coaches of both teams for their actions in an incredibly difficult -- almost unimaginable -- situation Monday night.
"Obviously, as coaches and really as players, there is nothing that prepares you for things like this," Pederson said. "For me, the thinking about those two gentlemen, the coaching hat went completely away. It was kind of becoming a father and becoming possibly even a spiritual leader here at the time. The way they handled this situation. The way they were able to communicate.
"And just like you said, the NFL community is a tight-knit community, and coaches obviously know each other and are a tight-knit group. And to see these coaches come together. To see the two teams come together as they did, kind of embrace one another. And really thinking about Damar and his family. And making sure the players had everything they needed -- there were going to be a lot of questions that came out of this. And I thought both gentlemen handled it extremely well. Very professional, obviously. Your coaching hat goes off, and your father hat comes on. I've got three sons, and football at that point is not that important."
As the football-watching world -- and beyond -- remains focused on the health of Hamlin, the NFL's 32 teams will also be tasked with preparing for another week of games. For Pederson's Jaguars, Week 18 brings the franchise's most important contest since the 2017 AFC Championship Game: Jacksonville hosts Tennessee for the divisional crown, with the Jags vying for their first postseason bid since that magical run in the '17 campaign.
As a former NFL quarterback and Super Bowl-winning coach, Pederson knows it will be especially difficult for his players and staff.
"That's the hardest thing that, as a coach, you have to prepare for. Obviously, for me, Monday night, watching it, coaching went away," Pederson said. "I was thinking about Damar and his family. I was thinking about the players on both sides of that field with the Bills and the Bengals. Then my attention quickly turned to our team and how was I going to handle (it)? Our guys were coming in the next day. How was I going to prepare our football team? What was I going to say?
"We're in the middle of playing for the AFC South. ... It's human nature. It's the humanity. You have to just be real and humble. You have to address it. You have to talk about it. Players are going to have questions. Coaches are going to have questions. (People in) your organization are going to have questions. Listen, I can honestly say I don't have all the answers, but at the same time, I want my players to know that we're here for them. It's the reason that I love this sport so much."
Pederson told GMFB that he began Tuesday by meeting with his player council "to see where they were and kind of gauge the headspace of the football team" before speaking with the entire Jaguars squad.
"I was just honest with them. I was just sharing just from my heart," Pederson said. "I went through a situation with my brother a year ago. Even though it was different, but seeing the struggle, the mental anguish, so to speak, that the players go through. And you saw it Monday night with both the teams. How could I help our football team? We provide resources, through psychologists, through ministers, through other people even outside the organization that we can bring into our fold and really help these players speak out."
Pederson emphasized the importance of communication among his players and staff, encouraging them to voice their thoughts and concerns regarding such an emotional occurrence and its impact on their mental state.
"One other message I had yesterday, too, is I don't want our guys to harbor any kind of feelings. I want them to speak," Pederson said. "I want them to be open because situations like this and incidences like this really hit everybody different. I don't want the guys to keep that in because we are preparing for a football game. It's the hardest thing to transition from. Life, and really things that are out of our control, to transitioning to a football game and trying to get the focus of the room back on that.
"I thought our guys did a great job of being able to sort of handle that. There were some questions from players about the incident and more on the medical side of it. But I thought overall, the guys handled it extremely well, and just a lot of love and pouring out of their hearts to the Hamlin family and to the Bills and Bengals organizations, as well."
