VIDOR, Texas — What happened during the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals Monday Night Football game has affected football fans across the world.
For two Southeast Texas football coaches, seeing Hamlin collapse on the field hit close to home.
Vidor Football Coach Jeff Matthews recalls his own daughter falling to the ground during a game after tearing her ACL.
He says that seeing a player collapse is every coach's nightmare.
For West Orange-Stark Football Coach Cornell Thompson, that nightmare came true in 2010 when one of his players collapsed on the field.
"Right behind me on the sideline where I was setting up the kickoff team, one of my players Reggie, collapsed on the field," said Thompson.
Thompson says that he did not know until later that Reggie Garrett had passed away from a rare heart disease.
“I had a flashback last night as to what exactly happened," said Thompson.
Thompson says he believes the events of Monday night will lead to a ripple effect of change to make football safer.
"I believe there will be some changes, because this is a first thing first time ever, that something like this has ever happened on national public television," said Thompson.
Coach Matthews says that even with more safety measures, there will always be a risk for injury.
"Athletes have gotten bigger, they've gotten faster, we've gotten stronger," said Matthews, “But like any other sport, the faster they get, the bigger they get, the stronger they get, those injuries are going to happen. It's just part of it."
The game Bills vs. Bengals game was temporarily suspended in the first quarter and was later on declared to be postponed.
ESPN announcer Joe Buck mentioned several times after Hamlin was taken by ambulance off the field that the players would have five minutes to warm-up before resuming the game. Buck said that the NFL was telling him this.
NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent responded to questions last night on a late-night media call about the five minute warm-up. He said that there was never a conversation about warming up to resume play at all. He also called it "insensitive" and "ridiculous."
Although he has said that Hamlin's health and condition should remain the focus, NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, is still responsible to make the decision regarding the game's completion.
According to the NFL policy manual, technically, the game would have to resume within two days of when it was originally scheduled. Therefore, if this were to be held true, the game would have to be played by Wednesday.
However, the NFL released a statement around 1 P.M. Tuesday that the Bills-Bengals game will not be resumed this week.
The statement also mentioned that there will not be any changes regarding the already scheduled week 18 games this weekend. Therefore, the Bills-Patriots game scheduled for Sunday at 1 P.M. in Orchard Park will be the next game in Buffalo's schedule.
There is still very little flexibility for when this game could resume. There are questions regarding the possibility of creating a 19th week of the regular season when the wild card games would normally occur. That may be the only thing that the league can do if they want to resume the game and keep somewhat of regularity throughout the rest of the NFL.
Despite being unsure exactly what will happen with this game moving forward, it is official that the game will not resume this week and the decision will be made at a later time.