Curious how the refs will call games this week.

[AuntieEm]

  It will be interesting to see if they get more nit picky on any excessive physical hits.  I'm talking the ones you can plainly see did not need to be quite so hard.  Ones that are borderline cheapshots.  It will also be interesting to see how players themselves play initially.  Might see a bit of subdued plays at first.  While it wouldn't hurt to have some of the hitting get toned down will the game change  noticeably in the initial games after Hamlins injury. 

 

  What are everyone's thoughts on how the initial games look and if the refs are more active on harder hits or handfighting.

[Jauronimo]

No different.

[RiotAct]

I don’t think officials will call em any differently.  I do think that players might tone it down a notch, however.

[BillsFanSD]

Badly, as usual.

[Greg S]

2 minutes ago, BillsFanSD said:

Badly, as usual.

 

You beat me to it. I was going to say the exact same thing.

[Jauronimo]

There is nothing to be done from a player safety perspective relative to the Damar incident.  As long as the NFL is a tackle football league, there is nothing that can be done to prevent another such freak occurrence.  

[BillsShredder83]

26 minutes ago, AuntieEm said:

  It will be interesting to see if they get more nit picky on any excessive physical hits.  I'm talking the ones you can plainly see did not need to be quite so hard.  Ones that are borderline cheapshots.  It will also be interesting to see how players themselves play initially.  Might see a bit of subdued plays at first.  While it wouldn't hurt to have some of the hitting get toned down will the game change  noticeably in the initial games after Hamlins injury. 

 

  What are everyone's thoughts on how the initial games look and if the refs are more active on harder hits or handfighting.

Migjt sporadically see some of this, but also imagine theyre coached to play normal.

 

Freak injuries are more likely imo when players turn off instincts and try to decide at what speed to do things. Would think this cpuld drive some strange non contact stuff

[Greg S]

17 minutes ago, Jauronimo said:

There is nothing to be done from a player safety perspective relative to the Damar incident.  As long as the NFL is a tackle football league, there is nothing that can be done to prevent another such freak occurrence.  

 

This was a freak occurrence. Nothing the league could do to prevent it. This scary incident reminded of another one that also happened to Buffalo. I think it was in the late 80's when Sabres goaltender Clint Malarchuck has his juglar vein accidently slashed. He was gushing blood all over the ice. They said if he was at the other goal he probably would have died. They got to him so quickly they were able to save his life.

[Boatdrinks]

The Hamlin play looked pretty routine , and while a terrible occurrence it was also a rare one. I don’t think officials will be hyper- vigilant , and players will have varying abilities to block it out and play. 

[WyoAZBillfan]

I’m more concerned the players…change it up or go lax. Seems like a sure way to get injured if someone’s letting up and the others are not. It’s still a competitive sport with hitting involved. Ultimately there will be two teams trying to win, I think a fire will be lit. 

[CSBill]

I imagine we won’t see the stupidity like NY Giants rookie did last week. 

[BigDingus]

If anything, it might result in players being a bit less likely to try & kill each other when delivering hits...

 

Not saying they won't still hit insanely hard, but perhaps more mindful of the usual headhunting stuff.

 

The officials won't call things any different though 

[AuntieEm]

38 minutes ago, Greg S said:

 

This was a freak occurrence. Nothing the league could do to prevent it. This scary incident reminded of another one that also happened to Buffalo. I think it was in the late 80's when Sabres goaltender Clint Malarchuck has his juglar vein accidently slashed. He was gushing blood all over the ice. They said if he was at the other goal he probably would have died. They got to him so quickly they were able to save his life.

 

  Well the Sabres had another game with a similar jugular slash when Zednik got sliced by his teammates skate.  I know it is unlikely we'll see another such incident in a football game.  I just think it will be interesting to see if there's any noticeable if subtle differences might appear initially.

 

 

 

28 minutes ago, CSBill said:

I imagine we won’t see the stupidity like NY Giants rookie did last week. 

 

  I don't really follow other games too closely.  What happened?

 

 

[BuffaloMatt]

[DCofNC]

It’ll be interesting to see if Buff gets away with more and KC and Cincy are flagged more tightly than usual.  The ideal scenario for the NFL is both of them losing while the Bills win, they can avoid the game with very minimal impact that way.

[ChronicAndKnuckles]

21 minutes ago, DCofNC said:

It’ll be interesting to see if Buff gets away with more and KC and Cincy are flagged more tightly than usual.  The ideal scenario for the NFL is both of them losing while the Bills win, they can avoid the game with very minimal impact that way.

I hope not. I don’t like bias reffing on either side 

[SRQ_BillsFan]

37 minutes ago, DCofNC said:

It’ll be interesting to see if Buff gets away with more and KC and Cincy are flagged more tightly than usual.  The ideal scenario for the NFL is both of them losing while the Bills win, they can avoid the game with very minimal impact that way.

Then what happens with the Ravens? Still have that issue hanging. 

[Steptide]

I think the only difference you might see, is medical personal getting to a player faster than normal if a player gets inured. 

[ExiledInIllinois]

1 hour ago, Steptide said:

I think the only difference you might see, is medical personal getting to a player faster than normal if a player gets inured. 

Can they really beat how long they got to Damar? Within seconds for him. 16 minutes total to the time the ambulance left field... They were waiting for his mother to come down from the stands.

[RiotAct]

4 hours ago, AuntieEm said:

 

  Well the Sabres had another game with a similar jugular slash when Zednik got sliced by his teammates skate.  I know it is unlikely we'll see another such incident in a football game. 

that was actually his carotid artery IIRC (possibly even more dangerous if not given immediate attention?)

[prissythecat]

6 hours ago, AuntieEm said:

  It will be interesting to see if they get more nit picky on any excessive physical hits.  I'm talking the ones you can plainly see did not need to be quite so hard.  Ones that are borderline cheapshots.  It will also be interesting to see how players themselves play initially.  Might see a bit of subdued plays at first.  While it wouldn't hurt to have some of the hitting get toned down will the game change  noticeably in the initial games after Hamlins injury. 

 

  What are everyone's thoughts on how the initial games look and if the refs are more active on harder hits or handfighting.

What makes you think a change would happen considering Hamlin was a defender who was hurt by fluke impact on his chest area when he made a tackle on Higgins the Bengals WR.  There were no illegal contact issues

[DCofNC]

3 hours ago, SRQ_BillsFan said:

Then what happens with the Ravens? Still have that issue hanging. 

Nobody cares, they don’t have a QB, they aren’t a real threat.

[AuntieEm]

3 hours ago, prissythecat said:

What makes you think a change would happen considering Hamlin was a defender who was hurt by fluke impact on his chest area when he made a tackle on Higgins the Bengals WR.  There were no illegal contact issues

 

  I know the hit that preceeded the injury was very routine and no illegal contact.  It registers like negative 5 on the Richter scale meaning didn't even look like much as it occurred. 

 

 It's more of seeing such an incident is much different than reading about it or knowing it could occur in abstract.  Ask a student in high school how they feel when the read about 911 versus asking someone who was watching TV that day and saw it live as it was happening and what seeing the 2nd plane hit which made it apparent it was an attack and no accident.

 

 

Edited January 5, 2023 by AuntieEm

[Mr. WEO]

yellow flags have never stopped big hits.  never will.

[Utah John]

I wouldn't be surprised if the play is a little tentative at first, but quite early someone will tackle someone hard, and everyone will snap out of it.  

 

If you don't play full speed, you're more likely to get hurt.  Half the games this weekend will determine playoff entry or position, so there will be some serious hitting by the second quarter of each game.

[Scott7975]

Same way they call the games every week, every year.

[Freddie's Dead]

Poorly, as usual.

[MJS]

Hamlin's situation was unique and rare. No need to change anything or call anything different.