We’re about 37 hours removed from Damar Hamlin being transported to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center after he collapsed on the field during the first quarter of Monday night’s contest between the Bills and Bengals.
The latest update from the Buffalo Bills came yesterday morning when they confirmed that Hamlin spent the night in the ICU at UC Medical Center and remains in critical condition.
Before we get into the Bears stuff, I’m going to quickly run down a few notes on the Hamlin story from yesterday.
The NFL released a statement on Tuesday afternoon outlining the decision not to resume Monday night’s contest this week after speaking with NFLPA leadership regarding the matter.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame released a statement on Tuesday regarding the decision to delay the announcement of the 15 Modern-Era Player Finalists for the Hall’s Class of 2023. The announcement has been delayed “for at least 24 hours” and the organizations will reevaluate the situation on Wednesday with further delays possible.
Damar Hamlin’s Go Fund Me for ‘The Chasing M’s Foundation,’ which belongs to Hamlin and serves the youth of his native Pittsburgh area, has raised more than $6.2 million as of this morning.
Obvious Shirts created a Damar Hamlin shirt and hoodie design that is available for pre-order right now. 100% of the proceeds will go to Hamlin’s Go Fund Me, and Joe and the folks at Obvious Shirts have raised over $13,000 as of their last update at 9:47 pm local time.
That’s it for now on the Hamlin front. Thoughts and prayers continue; if anything changes, we’ll write it up for you.
The Bears announced on Tuesday that they will hold a closed walkthrough today at Halas Hall as opposed to the usual open practice on Wednesday. There’s been no explanation, at least not one that anyone has reported at Halas Hall on Tuesday. I imagine it might have something to do with the NFL making mental health and support resources available to all players and staff today in the wake of the Damar Hamlin injury.
Saturday and Sunday’s NFL slate of games remain unchanged, so the Bears will host the Minnesota Vikings at noon at Soldier Field. After Minnesota’s blowout loss to the Packers last weekend, some wondered whether or not they would even both playing their starters this week against the Bears. Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell cleared that up on Tuesday, nothing that the Vikings “have a lot to play for” this week against the Bears, so expect to see the Vikings play their starters.
Of course, that’s good news for the Bears because a loss keeps them in the top two in the draft with a chance to move up to No. 1 with some help from the Texans this week.
Texans’ head coach Lovie Smith spoke to the media in Houston on Monday and again made it clear that the Texans will be playing for a win on Sunday against the Colts: “this is a big game for our team, we will practice hard and show up this week, and hopefully we can finish with a good taste in our mouth.”
Sweet baby Jesus, go Texans!
The Miami Dolphins are turning to a former Bear (and not an old friend in my book), Mike Glennon, for some depth this week as Tua Tagovailoa won’t play on Sunday (concussion protocol), and Teddy Bridgewater is dealing with a dislocated pinkie. Glennon was signed to the Miami practice squad, according to Adam Schefter.
This was kind of wild. Sports can be so poetic sometimes:
Even when you factor in the sacks, the hits, the lack of help, et cetera, et cetera, this was Justin Fields’ worst game of the season, even with the dazzling ground performance in the first quarter. More in this week’s Fields Film:
Chase Claypool hasn’t quite lived up to his big acquisition cost yet, but he’s got time. And some legitimate excuses … right?
Well, that’s just lovely …
All of your offseason dreams are close to coming true!
NEWSLETTER
