>
‘You HAVE to take off your armor!’: Sports fans implore NFL to make changes to uniforms and become more rugby-like in the wake of Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest…as they claim players currently wear protectors as ‘weapons’
<!–
<!–
<!–
<!–
<!–
<!–
Sports fans have called on the NFL to consider uniform changes after Damar Hamlin’s on-field cardiac arrest.
The 24-year-old Buffalo Bills player is said to have “progressed” with reducing his ventilator usage from 100 percent to 50 percent late on Tuesday.
Hamlin collapsed after a collision with Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins on Monday and was rushed to the hospital after receiving emergency medical treatment at the stadium.
Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest on the pitch after colliding with Bengal’s Tee Higgins
The Bills safety may have suffered a one in 200 million heart injury that cut off blood to his brain and led to cardiac arrest, doctors say.
The horrifying moment has once again brought attention to what NFL players wear and whether to wear armor.
Soccer, like rugby, involves brutal strikes and powerful tackles, but the English sport doesn’t include any padding.
The horrific incident has once again brought attention to whether armor should be worn in the NFL.
Some fans have questioned whether NFL players would change the way they tackle if they didn’t have the protection of armor.
One Twitter user commented: ‘I wonder what would happen if they took all the pads off and gave them leather helmets?
‘The reason they throw themselves against the wall with punches is because they wear armor. You see guys throwing themselves like that in rugby. [sic]
Fans have asked the NFL to consider wearing in-game armor after Monday.
‘If you don’t have the full armor, they would have to face you differently, like rugby.
‘You have to take off your armor. The hit on Hamlin was due to the running back using his hard shoulder pads as a weapon. I can’t do that in rugby.
In the conversation, another responded: ‘Football is a beautiful sport. It’s also a blood sport, and I don’t see it like that for many years. Someone has to concede.
“There was a push years ago to get the NCAA to make rugby-style tackles the standard, but I don’t think it went anywhere.”
In the aftermath of Hamlin’s cardiac arrest, another social media user said: ‘@NFL Time to check out team helmet, body armor and whatever. Don’t wait another day… reach out to these companies and scientists, let’s do it. Thank you. #damarhamlin.
While one said: ‘I realize it’s counterintuitive, but football might be safer for organ impingement injuries if there was less body armor, not more.
“It is the bulletproof vest that has increased the force of impact contact between players. It can protect against some injuries, but not this.
Jordon Rooney, a family friend and manager for Hamlin, revealed the family’s dismay that Higgins, the Bengals player involved in the tackle with Hamlin, was receiving backlash online.
“Damar’s parents were frustrated that Tee was getting a backlash, and he reached out and supported Damar and his family,” he told ESPN on Tuesday.
ESPN’s NFL analyst Bart Scott has been called ‘despicable’ for suggesting Higgins was at fault for pulling his helmet down in the collision with Hamlin, moments before the Bills player collapsed due to cardiac arrest. .