In case you have been living in isolation the past few weeks, here’s a recap of the incident. In the middle of an important football game, Damar Hamlin, a young defensive back, tackled a ball carrier. He stood up and took a couple of steps, and then collapsed. Medical personnel were rushed in and he was given CPR to resuscitate a stopped
heart. It was a life-or-death moment. The players were deeply touched, and a number of them were seen in tears for their colleague. The incident lasted maybe 15 minutes and the game was subsequently suspended.
The announcers and analysts for the networks televising the game had to fill in the time. Every one of the commentators I was watching remarked repeatedly that all we could do was pray. Dan Orlovsky, a former backup quarterback and current analyst for ESPN, took it one step further, and verbally prayed for Damar. At the time, it seemed to be a natural reaction on
Orlovsky’s part, and not at all out of order. (See it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk9TwonTnCM). In retrospect, it was a remarkable, sincere, heartfelt and natural response to a calamity. The responses were overwhelmingly positive and supportive. One person commenting on the video said:
“The fact that he was willing to do this on one of the biggest and most publicized channels in the country is just unbelievable.”
