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Monday Night Football postponed - Buffalo safety Damar Hamlin collapses

BUT... in the 10s of minutes following his collapse, it was 1 to 3 minutes of solemn conversation and thoughts followed by 3-4 minutes of commercials. This repeated over and over. That's why we were complaining, early on.
Many fans have held their own vigil in front of the hospital for Hamlin. He is still in critical condition with no further updates.
 
crainbebo said:
BUT... in the 10s of minutes following his collapse, it was 1 to 3 minutes of solemn conversation and thoughts followed by 3-4 minutes of commercials. This repeated over and over. That's why we were complaining, early on.
Many fans have held their own vigil in front of the hospital for Hamlin. He is still in critical condition with no further updates.
Click to expand...
Sure, they could have gone to the wide shot for 3 minutes but networks are not programmed to do that if they can run a commercial.
 
Lets say they did resume the game. They were blowing out of their commercial inventory. What would they have done.
 
They would have had no choice but to go to 1-2 min. black screen and force all ABC affiliates to take local breaks. Likewise, cable operators would need to fill the minute or two with local spots. Or they could have had PSA fillers, ala what CBS does during the Overnight News (or did).

Of course at this point, who cares. We're still on pins and needles waiting for word on Damar. 😟
 
Why exactly must they stop commercials? We're not talking a couple of dollars here but an enormous expense. The advertiser purchased the game and the folks complaining of commercials heard the commercials and kept tuned to the broadcast. Sounds like the advertiser got what they bought. Why exactly does a serious injury that suspends the game require commercial free broadcasts?
 
And the anti-vaxxers are out in force. “see? He collapsed because of the clot shot! Stop the vaxxes and let COVID spread completely uncontrolled!”
 
I may be in the minority here, but I personally had no issue with them cutting to commercials as they probably used that time to regroup, discuss what was factually known at that point, what they planned to discuss and banter about on the air and how to fill the time during the long stoppage of play and as decisions were made as to whether or not to resume the game.

I sort of liken it to the Superbowl a few years ago when there was a massive power outage. Once play stopped and the stadium was in at least partial darkness, the on-air staff seemed ill prepared and didn't know what to say or how to fill all that time, so they started out by doing an "over to you" to the various commentators that were televising the game who each seemed caught off guard before chatting for a few moments and quickly passing it to someone else, before finally cutting to commercial. The coverage during that blackout and how it was handled was so comical that it actually prompted SNL to create a sketch to parody it. I'd post the link to that SNL bit here, but as this thread is about someone being seriously injured or having a serious health issue, it's probably not the place..But its out there if others wish to search for it.
 
Mikey Radio said:
I may be in the minority here, but I personally had no issue with them cutting to commercials as they probably used that time to regroup, discuss what was factually known at that point, what they planned to discuss and banter about on the air and how to fill the time during the long stoppage of play and as decisions were made as to whether or not to resume the game.

I sort of liken it to the Superbowl a few years ago when there was a massive power outage. Once play stopped and the stadium was in at least partial darkness, the on-air staff seemed ill prepared and didn't know what to say or how to fill all that time, so they started out by doing an "over to you" to the various commentators that were televising the game who each seemed caught off guard before chatting for a few moments and quickly passing it to someone else, before finally cutting to commercial. The coverage during that blackout and how it was handled was so comical that it actually prompted SNL to create a sketch to parody it. I'd post the link to that SNL bit here, but as this thread is about someone being seriously injured or having a serious health issue, it's probably not the place..But its out there if others wish to search for it.
Click to expand...
The power outage at the Superdome also knocked out the production truck so CBS was truly in the dark.
 
crainbebo said:
BUT... in the 10s of minutes following his collapse, it was 1 to 3 minutes of solemn conversation and thoughts followed by 3-4 minutes of commercials. This repeated over and over. That's why we were complaining, early on.
Many fans have held their own vigil in front of the hospital for Hamlin. He is still in critical condition with no further updates.
Click to expand...
ESPN really screwed the pooch by showing the replay - once, twice - of the hit and Hamlin's collapse, before pulling back to the wide shot of the field & stadium.

I think once Joe (or probably Troy) saw that, I'm thinking he was probably telling the guys in the truck "don't play that anymore".

Troy got real quiet after that - handing it off to the pro Joe to do the talking.

That young man won't play football ever again - and, no, not the same comparison to be made at all to Christian Eriksen, who had a similar medical issue playing soccer a year and a half ago.
 
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There was nothing wrong with showing the replay. For one thing, it was missed live – the director cut to a crowd shot – and second, it needed to be shown to so the viewer knew what happened. They had two angles, showed them, and didn't show them again.

This reminded me of the Chuck Hughes death in a Bears-Lions game in 1971. There was no replay (Hughes fell down at the end of a pass pattern and CBS didn't have him on isolated camera), but otherwise the director went to a wide shot of Tiger Stadium while Jack Drees and George Connor explained what was going on.
 
KeithE4 said:
While the on-air ESPN folks showed the utmost class, whoever made the decision to air the usual commercials while a man's life was in danger should be fired tonight.
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You have to put this in the context that players get injured and carted off the field all the time. It is standard practice to take an injury time out, and run commercials. Nobody knew the seriousness of the injury. There was every indication that the game would resume after the ambulance left the field. That's what normally would happen. But these players were obviously emotionally affected by what they saw. They told their coaches they were done for the day, and the coaches told the NFL. Then an hour after the incident, the game was postponed.
 
KeithE4 said:
While the on-air ESPN folks showed the utmost class, whoever made the decision to air the usual commercials while a man's life was in danger should be fired tonight. Disney should have canceled all ads and refunded the clients' money. This was an extraordinary circumstance, and advertising should not have been aired.
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Because in the broadcasting world; when something like this throws the entire show/event out of whack, the default time killer is to run spots while behind the scenes, producers and directors and consulting with the higher up's as what to do next. You're assuming ESPN was being greedy or mean spirited by going to back to back breaks, when really, they were just trying to figure out what to do next.
 
Kelly A said:
I Because in the broadcasting world; when something like this throws the entire show/event out of whack, the default time killer is to run spots while behind the scenes, producers and directors and consulting with the higher up's as what to do next. You're assuming ESPN was being greedy or mean spirited by going to back to back breaks, when really, they were just trying to figure out what to do next.
Click to expand...
I’m reminded of John Landecker’s account of broadcasting his morning show on WJMK the morning of 9/11. He had a call on the phone for a bit, then the news broke. They went into commercials, not because the advertisers had paid, but to gather thoughts and co-ordinate coverage. An oldies station went into all-news mode, with access to TV stations but they did not simulcast a TV station.
 

Here is the play that lead to Damar Hamlin in the position he ended up in. Hope for the best with Hamlin and the Bills.


Here is Troy Aikman and Joe Buck reactions over the incident when the ESPN Desk took over to cover the incident.

 
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