Bengals Coach Zac Taylor Reveals What Bills Coach Sean McDermott Said After Damar Hamlin Collapse: ‘I Need to Be at the Hospital’

Bengals Coach Zac Taylor revealed to reporters this week what Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott told him shortly after Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field Monday night.

Speaking with reporters at a press conference, Taylor said that McDermott knew he had to be at the hospital with his fallen player.

Zac Taylor praised Bills coach Sean McDermott.

"The first thing [Sean McDermott] said was, 'I need to be at the hospital with Damar.'" pic.twitter.com/3J0fkdjJ0v

— ESPN (@espn) January 4, 2023

“I won’t disclose any of the private conversations Sean and I had except for this,” Taylor said. “When I got there, the first thing he said was, ‘I need to be at the hospital with Damar. I shouldn’t be coaching this game.”That to me provides all the clarity because there was no … unprecedented is the word that gets thrown around a lot about this situation because that’s what it is,” Taylor added. “But in that moment, he really showed who he was. That all his focus was just on Damar and being there for him, being there for his family at the hospital. And at that point, I think everything trended in the direction it needed to trend and the right decisions were made there.”

Head coach Sean McDermott of the Buffalo Bills and head coach Zac Taylor of the Cincinnati Bengals speak during the suspension of their game following the injury of Damar Hamlin #3 of the Buffalo Bills at Paycor Stadium on January 02, 2023, in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Dylan Buell/Getty Images)

The NFL has not revealed if the suspended game, which had playoff potential, will be rescheduled or scrapped altogether.

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow also told reporters on Wednesday that the team captains spoke with each other at the time of the incident and that they had no plans to continue the game.

“One, we wanted to show our support,” Burrow said. “And two, at that point there had been no decision made on the game and we wanted to go over and let them know how we were feeling about playing. We didn’t want to go back out there and that was the decision that ended up being made and I know they didn’t want to go back out there either. So, we just wanted to make sure that they knew we felt the same way they did.”Nobody wanted to continue the game in a situation like that,” Burrow added. “I know how everybody would be feeling in our locker room if it was one of our guys, and I know how we were feeling and it was one of their guys. So it was a scary, emotional night.”