Buffalo Bills fans at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati for Monday night's highly anticipated "Monday Night Football" contest were horrified at what they saw on the field just before 9 p.m. after Buffalo safety Damar Hamlin suffered an injury that left him in critical condition.
"It’s been extremely emotional and gutting. Seeing all the staff panic and run, players crying and emotional. Fans emotional," Alyssa O'Reilly, a Bills fan from Texas, told The Buffalo News in a series of Twitter direct messages.
The devoted Bills fan said she and her traveling party couldn't believe what they witnessed when Hamlin collapsed.
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"The initial hit didn’t look as bad as what it really was. We just thought it was a tackle," she wrote. "And then we were in complete shock as everyone huddled around him as he laid motionless, staff running and ambulance coming."
She said it felt "gut-wrenching" to watch the players waiting and praying as the emergency responders worked on Hamlin.
"You knew every single fan and player wanted to make this better," she wrote.
It was impossible, from where she was sitting, to know what was happening with Hamlin. As Bills fans waited and hoped for the best, O'Reilly said, Bengals fans commiserated with them and tried to console them.
She said she agreed completely with the NFL's decision to postpone the game.
"How could you play, no matter what side you were on, let alone watch the players have to play when they were devastated," she wrote late Monday. "It wouldn’t have been right at all."
Numerous other Bills fans who were at Monday night's game expressed distress at Hamlin's injury and its aftermath.
Mike Watts, who traveled to Cincinnati from the Buffalo area with his son, said Bills and Bengals fans were in good spirits heading into the game.
"Everybody was amped up," he said in a phone interview late Monday.
He, too, didn't realize how badly Hamlin was injured on the play, until a fan nearby showed him the replay on his phone.
As crews tended to Hamlin, and players huddled around him, Watts said, "It was eerily quiet," with none of the high-volume stadium announcements or music you would normally hear at an NFL game.Â
After the ambulance left the field, before the game was postponed, Watts said, a group of Bengals and Bills fans in his section of the stadium joined together in prayer.
Chuck and Janet Kohl talk about why they came to University of Cincinnati Medical Center to support Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin after he collapsed on the field at Paycor stadium in Cincinnati during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Hamlin's injury is far more important than the outcome of the game, whenever or whether it's rescheduled, Watts said.
"I don't even want to watch the football game, at this point," Watts said. "I don't even know how they play next week."
Shortly before midnight, a group of about two dozen Bills and Bengals fans waited outside University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where Hamlin was undergoing treatment, and huddled together for a group prayer.
Bengals fans Janet and Chuck Kohl stand outside University of Cincinnati Medical Center where Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin receives medical attention after collapsing on the field during the first quarter of the game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Monday, Jan. 2, 2023. (Harry Scull Jr./Buffalo News)
Also in Cincinnati was John Lang, the well-traveled Bills Elvis, who was still in disbelief more than an hour after the game was officially postponed.
"I don't even know how to describe it," he said in an interview, after tweeting earlier from the game: "Please be ok. Please."
Lang said numerous Bengals fans came up to him during the game, and at the bar from which he spoke following the postponement, to offer their best wishes.
"I've had total strangers come up and hug me," Lang said.
The overwhelming feeling is one of "sadness," said Lang, who is typically near the vibrant center of activity whenever Bills fans gather en masse.
"I don't know what tomorrow is going to bring," he said.
Gino Bevins of Rochester stands outside University of Cincinnati Medical Center and gives his thoughts Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin's collapse on the field at Paycor Field in Cincinnati during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals
Lang's daughter, Abbey, who regularly accompanies him to road games, tweeted, "This is a horrible vibe I might cry. Poor damar."
"Absolutely sick," wrote a leading member of the Bills Mafia Babes, Kristen Kimmick.
She added in a follow-up tweet, prior to the game's postponement for the night: "Cancel the game. Please. Nobody wants to be here. This is so much more than a game. Bengals fans hugging Bills fans everywhere I can see. Cancel it."
News Sports Reporter Ryan O'Halloran contributed to this report.
