Nebraska Football: Zac Taylor shows admirable humanity in wake of Damar Hamlin collapse

Former Nebraska football star and current Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor showed humanity that was incredibly admirable in the face of reported league pressure to take a break and then have his team and the Buffalo Bills get back to hitting each other.

Monday night’s scene was something that neither I, nor anyone else has ever seen on an NFL football field. Damar Hamlin went down after tackling Bengals’ receiver Tee Higgins and he went down hard. After first it seemed like a relatively normal incident in football. The initial thought was that Hamlin had suffered a concussion. And then I started to look at the faces on the Bills’ players.

This wasn’t a normal situation. And then the situation went on and on, and on. Reports of CPR being performed started circulating social media. An ambulance was brought onto the field. The announcers had genuine, raw emotion in their voices as they kept sending the broadcast back to the commercial and then to the studio.

And then the announcement came. The NFL had decided that once Damar Hamlin was driven out of the stadium in that ambulance, the two teams would have some time to get themselves together and start the game back up.

And that’s when the former Nebraska football quarterback – a guy who has been one of my favorite Huskers since he came through Lincoln – showed a level of humanity I’m not entirely sure everyone in his position would have done. He walked over to the Bills’ sideline and conversed with Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott.

After that conversation, where the two men had clearly agreed quite quickly, the two teams left the field. About and hour later, the league made what we all suspected at that moment official. The game was postponed.

I wanted to write about Monday night despite feeling like I couldn’t really put what I wanted to say into words. My heart is swelling with pride aimed at Zac Taylor. He’s someone who I’ve always felt was a good guy. He’s never gotten into the kind of trouble so many others in his field have. He’s never said the kind of silly things so many others who are held up as “good people” have said.

I’m proud of him because he’s someone I’ve been a fan of for more than 15 years. And he’s earned that fandom. He was a great player and apparently a great person. The same year he won the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, he made Nebraska football fans proud by being named to the Brook Berringer Citizenship Team.

Obviously, Zac Taylor isn’t a perfect person. I’m sure he has shortcomings somewhere. He is human, after all. But moments like the Damar Hamlin situation show who people really are. At that moment, winning a football game was not at the forefront of his mind.

I say again, I don’t think you could say that about every coach in the NFL.

I’m proud of Zac Taylor. I’m proud that he’s represented the Nebraska football program, the Cincinnati Bengals and the NFL during a situation no one could have seen coming. I’ve written before about how and why I think Husker fans all over should be Cincinnati Bengals fans. Zac Taylor isn’t the only reason why. But after Monday night, he’s the only reason I’d need if I wasn’t already there.