Mike McCarthy on Dallas Cowboys and NFL amid Damar Hamlin situation: ‘Nobody’s fine’
The Dallas Cowboys have an important game against the Washington Commanders on Sunday.
They could win the NFC East title and the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs with a win.
But as they began their first official practice Wednesday, their thoughts and minds were not on football but on Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin’s ongoing battle for his life.
Hamlin remains in critical condition in a Cincinnati hospital after collapsing on the field in Monday’s game against the Bengals and being resuscitated twice after his heart stopped, per reports.
Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy addressed the situation with his team before practice Monday and said it was a “heavy sensitive day here.”
“I’ll start off, just like our first start, with just express care and concern for Damar Hamlin, his family, his teammates, the Bills organization, Cincinnati, their football team, their organization,” McCarthy said as he opened his press conference Wednesday morning. “I think anybody that’s been through something like this, it’s very impactful and obviously our thoughts and prayers are for a full recovery.
“We spent a good amount of time talking about it this morning in our team meeting. Our chaplain, Jonathan Evans, was very insightful. I thought his spiritual guidance was what we needed to hear.”
McCarthy, however, made it clear that all was not OK with the Cowboys or anyone in the NFL amid Hamlin’s ongoing situation.
“I think, like anything when you get in tough times, you just have to make sure you’ve got your resources lined up and everybody is keeping an eye on one another because, let’s be honest, nobody’s fine,” McCarthy said. “I think we all have a tendency to say, ‘we’re good,’ so that’s where our mind is. That’s where our focus is. We obviously know what’s in front of us professionally. Our spirituality playbook was open today and we’re working through it.”
McCarthy said the situation reminded him of the death of San Francisco 49ers lineman Thomas Herrion, a Fort Worth native, in 2005. He was in the locker room praying over Herrion with the rest of the team and staff when the medical staff came in.
He respected how 49ers coach Mike Nolan handled the team throughout the week with the tragedy.
He said they had their priorities right with taking care of the team and each other first.
And that’s how he is approaching this week with the Cowboys, as their focus is always family first, then football.
“I’m really not thinking about Sunday right now,” McCarthy said. “It’s Wednesday, and we have a schedule of things we need to do today, and that’s happening and I have great confidence we’ll get done what we needed but most importantly, stating the obvious, if we need to adjust, we’ll adjust. This is an important game, but it’s clearly what’s most important right now is our focus on one another, making sure we’re pushing our prayers out there to Damar and his family, because that’s what’s needed.
“This NFL community is very tight, and you’re not further than one person removed from anybody in this community. This hits close to home with a number of our players, and like anything we’ve all been talking about our experiences the last couple of days. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and we’re hoping for a full recovery.”
The situation was extremely for Cowboys running back Qadree Ollison, who played football with Hamlin at Pittsburgh and remains a close friend.
“He’s everything you want in a friend, teammate. Super funny. Super outgoing. Yeah just an all around great person,” Ollison said. “I texted him. I told him I love him. And that’s what I’d tell him if I could talk to him now. I love him, can’t wait to see him, see him back up.
“It’s heartbreaking to see something like that, but I’m also confident in him. I know who he is. I know how strong he is. I know where he comes from. So I’m also confident and I know he’ll be OK. So that’s kind of where I’m at with it. It’s tragic. It was sad to see it but I know my brother, I know he can get through this.”
And the Cowboys will get through this together as a team. But watching Hamlin collapse and then get revived on the field brought back memories of the death of strength coach Markus Paul, who suffered a fatal medical emergency in the Cowboys weight room in 2020.
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott said he didn’t see the initial hit Hamlin took, but he saw the replay and the reaction of all the players on the field.
“Just seeing the players’ reaction, I’ve got all the hope and belief that Damar’s going to fight through and he’s going to make it, but it just brought me back to Markus Paul,” Prescott said. “And the sense of the locker room and the sense of that morning when that happened, how people reacted. It was a tough moment, obviously. Especially when you’ve dealt with something similar in your own locker room. We’re all family. Just honestly I felt for the players, I felt for Damar, his teammates, the coaches, the Bengals, people watching the game, kids. The thoughts and everything that that can create, it’s traumatizing for people.”
Prescott said McCarthy did a good job giving the Cowboys the day off in 2020 to around their family and teammates. He told them to call their loved ones and tell them you love them.
And that was Evans’ message to the team on Wednesday as well.
“I thought his message was outstanding. Just obviously praying hard for him and his family, and in the same sense just being able to reflect on where you are and being present in a moment in a time. You see something like that, and you think about everything that happens in the game. We use the cliche that we’d put everything on the line and would die for this, and then you see someone fighting for their life, and — what does that mean? The message is are you maximizing your time? Because at the end of the day, you’re not old or young off of your birth date but off your death date, right? So how are you taking advantage of your time and maximizing your time? You leave nothing to chance.
“Be thankful for your moments and be thankful for everything. It’s very unfortunate that it takes that for some people in their life to maybe understand that or dial down on that. Sad about the whole situation.”
This story was originally published January 4, 2023 at 12:57 PM.
