WATCH: ESPN’s Joe Buck Repeatedly Said the NFL Gave the Bills and Bengals 5 Minutes to Resume Play, Contrary to League’s Claim

ESPN’s Joe Buck repeatedly claimed the NFL gave the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals five minutes to warm up after Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field, which the league has denied.

Hamlin collapsed and went into cardiac arrest during ESPN’s Monday Night Football. He was given CPR on the field before he was rushed to a local Cincinnati hospital, where he was incubated and listed in critical condition.

The game was postponed early in the first quarter. In a video compilation put together by Tim Burke, Buck claimed four times that the NFL gave players from both teams five minutes to warm up after Hamlin suddenly collapsed.

“They have been given five minutes to quote-unquote get ready to get back playing,” Buck said. “That’s the word we get from the league and word we get from down on the field.”

The NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, Troy Vincent, ostensibly denied the reports on a conference call Monday night that the league was ready to start the game again.

“Frankly, the competitive aspect never crossed my mind, never crossed our mind internally,” Vincent said. “It was really about Demar and making sure, look, I’ve never seen anything like it since I’ve been playing, so immediately my player hat went on.”

Vincent played 15 seasons in the NFL as a defensive back before he took a role in the league office. He was asked about the claim that the NFL gave players five minutes to warm up before restarting the game, and Vincent seemed dumbfounded that those reports became a thing.

“I’m not sure where that came from,” Vincent added. “Frankly, there was no time period for the players to get warmed up. Frankly, the only thing that we asked was that [referee] Shawn (Smith) communicate with both head coaches to make sure they had the proper time inside the locker room to discuss what they felt like was best. So I’m not sure where that came from.”

“Five-minute warmup never crossed my mind, personally,” Vincent continued. “I was the one that was communicated with the Commissioner. We never, frankly, it never crossed our mind to talk about warming up to resume play. That’s ridiculous. That’s insensitive, and that’s not a place that we should ever be in.”

Watch above.