Reporter Flat-Out Asks Biden ‘Do You Think The NFL Is Getting Too Dangerous?’ In Wake of Damar Hamlin Injury
President Joe Biden was asked to weigh in on violence in the NFL days after Buffalo Bills star safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field during Monday Night Football’s broadcast of the Bills-Cincinnati Bengals game.
The sports world and the entire country were stunned by the incident that forced the unprecedented suspension of Monday night’s game. Hamlin sprang to his feet after tackling Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins, but then fell to the turf and had to be given CPR on the field. The Bills later announced he’d had a cardiac arrest and that his heartbeat was restored on the field.
Hamlin remained hospitalized in critical condition as of Wednesday, but doctors told the family that his condition was moving in a “positive direction,” according to family spokesperson Jordan Rooney.
Biden spoke to reporters while he was preparing to depart Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport in Hebron, Kentucky on Wednesday, and was asked, point-blank if the NFL is “getting too dangerous.”
The President conceded the game is violent but wouldn’t make the reporter’s leap:
Q Do you think the NFL is getting too dangerous?
THE PRESIDENT: No. Look, the idea that you’re going to have — look, you got guys that are 6’8”, 340 pounds running a 4.8 40. I mean, you know, you hit somebody with that kind of force — now, that’s not what happened here.
But I just think it’s a — I don’t know how you avoid it. I don’t — I think working like hell on the helmets and the concussion protocols — that all makes a lot of sense. But it’s — you know, it is dangerous. You got to just acknowledge it.
Biden was asked specifically about Hamlin when he returned to the White House Wednesday afternoon and said he’d been in touch with Hamlin’s family:
Q What’s your message to Damar Hamlin and his family?
Q What city would you like to go to on the border, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Pardon me?
Q What’s your message to Damar Hamlin and his family?
THE PRESIDENT: I spoke to his mother and father at length.
Watch above via C-SPAN.
