It was bad enough this Sunday, and I stand behind what I said on Sunday.
But today, a six-minute Instagram video was posted, apparently by Hamlin (and I am satisfied that video was his!!!), thanking everyone for their support the last four weeks.
Here's the video. You can watch it for yourself.
Now, here's the "but"...
I still stand behind my contention on Sunday that the man in the video and pictures at the stadium was not Damar Hamlin. It is completely inconsistent with both human nature and that of the National Football League.
It is completely inconsistent with both the nature of athletes to play out of their minds when such heroic actions and presences are there in truth. It is also completely inconsistent with the NFL's nature to capitalize on tragedies, especially those which took place on their fields of play.
To anyone (including Bills fan "Dee Zee", who was sad to have to post a two-minute video 14 hours ago (12 hours before the Hamlin video surfaced on Instagram) stating his beliefs, I ask you the following two questions:
Number one: Under that circumstance, if Damar was in the stadium for the first time on Sunday, do you not believe that the Buffalo Bills would have an otherworldly, if not religious, motivation to play and win for their fallen comrade?
Number two: Under that circumstance, do you not recall that the NFL has been capitalizing on this type of tragedy and action for years, in games even far smaller than this one, for players from Brett Favre to a no-name starter on the Chiefs, etc.? I could go back on the blog and find any number of deaths or injuries to relatives of players, etc. that the NFL capitalized on with a heroic win the next time their team took the field.
This was about as public as you could get. In short: Why would the Bills lose 27-10 in a game they were never in, and, out of character with many other such games in the NFL, disappoint Damar so badly in their elimination from the playoffs?
I DO believe the video posted today was of Damar Hamlin. I cross-checked the face in a number of respects (hair, nose flare, facial hair, and any number of others) with his picture on his player page on NFL.com.
I still DO NOT believe the man represented on Sunday was Damar Hamlin, however.
Because, given the rigged nature of the NFL, the fact that this video comes up AFTER the Bills elimination from the playoffs raises even more questions about last Sunday:
- Obviously, one could ask the question as to whether the video was actually made today. However, it is clear that the video was made post-heart attack.
- So then: Why does the NFL then allow the Bills to lay a complete and summary egg on that game (rather than, say, the game in Atlanta against Kansas City which would follow)? I get the point "nobody" made about Matt Araiza, but the Bills did fire him upon discovery. It would be a major strike against their Super Bowl plans, and there would be very few things which could override it. That, however, could well be one of them.
- If Damar Hamlin was in condition to make that video today, why the secrecy on Sunday? And wouldn't a better time to have made that video be, especially if Hamlin was going to be in the stadium last Sunday, a week ago or so? Then you could have the sideline reporter go up to the booth and have a brief live word with Hamlin at it's conclusion.
- And remember, those on the other side of the equation: I do not necessarily believe this was COVID-vaccine related. COVID-related is a very real possibility -- a bout with COVID can very well fuck up your heart long-term. Noticeable long COVID, according to a summer 2022 survey, is present in from 5 to 20% of all the people who got COVID. I do not know -- and there's probably no way to know now because of all the anti-vaxx conspiracy theories -- whether Damar publicly had COVID. But I would assert that a commotio cardis event on a COVID-compromised heart and circulatory system could well have garnered this result.
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