Bengals Beat: Joe Burrow, DJ Reader Leaders In Genuine Compassion, Helping Bengals Move Forward With Business Of Football

CINCINNATI — Leadership takes many forms in many different situations.

Joe Burrow and DJ Reader are prime examples of this. They have provided leadership over the last two seasons as the Bengals have catapulted to the top of the AFC and earned a place among the elite teams in the NFL.

But this week, their leadership has taken on vastly larger ramifications. The two captains have led the way in offering support and perspective to their teammates and most importantly, compassion to an opponent dealing with a traumatic injury to one of their own.

From the moment Bills safety Damar Hamlin went down with 5:58 left in the first quarter Monday night, captains on both teams went into crisis management mode. Burrow and Reader are two of Cincinnati’s six captains who made their way down to the Bills locker room to meet with Bills captains to offer their encouragement and support and discuss how to best handle the unprecedented stoppage.

“One of the guys in our brotherhood is down right now,” Reader said Wednesday. “We just want to be around them, give the support we can. The league conversation, I don’t really get into. It was handled. Whatever was said was what it was. It’s about the player and the person and his family, making sure they are good. As a team and a locker room, that’s what’s important right now. We got a game this wee. They got a game this week. We’re trying our best to wrap our arms around the situation.”

The game was indefinitely postponed at 10:01 p.m. ET and the Bills and Bengals were finally allowed to get out of their uniforms and process what they had just witnessed.

“As soon as it happened. Something like that you don’t see happen,” Reader said. “We see injuries all the time. That’s not something you see on the football field. The pure emotion of everybody out there, I don’t know how you ask guys to go back out there after that emotion. How do we feel about his family, him getting carted off, going to the hospital and knowing what they got to do to continue the game, I don’t think you can.”

Burrow offered his leadership and support to his teammates and then the Bills.

“We tried to do all we could,” Burrow said. “We went over there and saw him and just tried to give as much support as you can in situation like that. Nobody wanted to continue to play the game in a situation like that. You know, 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 when it was one of their guys. So it was a scary, emotional night.”

Reader gave credit to Burrow for showing compassion and love not just for his teammates but for the Bills, leading in the most genuine way possible.

“It’s a surreal moment for everybody,” Reader said. “All the leaders on the team were doing a great job. Just as a team, we love each other. You don’t say to your brothers as often as you should. That’s someone you grind with, sweat with, bleed with all the time. It’s something that should be said more because that’s the respect you have for each other in this game. It was good to have everyone else come up and say we love each other and wrap our arms around each other and be there for each other.”

Burrow made it clear to the Bills that he was all for not going ahead with the game.

“I know they didn’t want to go back out there either,” Burrow said. “So, we just wanted to make sure they knew we felt that same way as they did.”

Burrow indicated Wednesday that the biggest challenge was making sense of what was happening on the field and trying to keep composed.

“Obviously very, very scary,” Burrow said. “Not a lot of clarity, a lot of rumors (and) just a lot of stuff going around. And so it was very emotional 48 hours. There’s not a lot of words you can say about what happened.

“After the ambulance pulled out, we really didn’t know what was going on. People were saying we were going to play again,” Burrow added. “There was a lot of stuff going around. It was just a lot of chaos, a lot of emotions, a lot of people saying different things. We really didn’t know what was going on at that point.”

There’s also Burrow’s own emotions and the emotions that the Bengals have had to process since Monday night and try to get ready to play an important game Sunday against Baltimore at Paycor.

“I mean, unfortunate as it is, we got a game to play on Sunday,” Burrow said. “And so, as unusual as this week has been, it’s business as usual from a football standpoint, unfortunately. And that’s not, I don’t even know what to say about it because it’s such a scary, emotional time. And guys still have a football game to play on Sunday. And it’s our job to get out there and execute and play the game the way we need to play it to go and win. It is what it is, but we’ve had discussions as a team about what happened and about where we’re at going forward, and that’s where we’re at.”

Reader echoed those sentiments.

“It’s unfortunate people use that cliche that ‘this is the job that we signed up for.’ It’s just an ugly part of it,” Reader admitted. “You can (only) play the game at one speed. He (Hamlin) was out there playing at full speed. It’s just what happens sometimes and it’s just such a freak accident. You can’t take your foot off the gas as a defender or an offensive player out there. If you’re playing lightly, you’re going to take your risk of getting hurt. It’s the only way to play this game. You gotta play 100 miles an hour and that’s how you go about it.

“Unfortunately, this job is not like any other. You don’t get paid timely if you don’t get those type of things week-to-week-to-week. Players have to deal with things off the field. They expect to go out there and perform. As an athlete, you have to have a certain ability to compartmentalize. Unfortunately, that’s just a reality of our game. But this is a tough situation. You know, you see something going on out there, anything, whether it’s a regular injury, you really don’t know what’s going on out there. I think our staff, administrative staff, handled it in such a timely manner. Anywhere else in the world, you won’t get that kind of help. So, it just meant a lot to see everyone come out together and come out there and make the best of the situation.”

Ultimately, the Hamlin episode on the field changes perspective of players who were exposed to the trauma on the field, something Burrow freely acknowledged.

“It’s definitely going to change after this,” Burrow said. “You mention it maybe every now and then, but it’s not anything and you never mention it in a serious sense. You have these thoughts and you know it could happen, but you’ve never seen it happen and it’s never happened to you. Now, I think everyone has taken a step back and understanding really the kind of game that we play and how dangerous it is and how it really could have been any one of us in that situation.”

“Remarkable improvement” in Hamlin condition:

The Buffalo Bills tweeted out Thursday that Damar Hamlin is making progress on his long road to recovery. While still in critical condition, he has shown that “he appears to be neurologically intact.”

Full attendance:

Despite the emotional shock of witnessing the injury to Damar Hamlin Monday night, all Bengals players were present and accounted for when the team held a walkthrough inside Paycor Stadium Wednesday, including Tee Higgins, Tyler Boyd
and Cal Adomitis. Boyd and Adomitis hold connections with Hamlin through Pitt, where all three played in college. Higgins was the player with whom Hamlin collided in the moments before his collapse. Sam Hubbard was also in attendance and was working on loosening up his left calf as he hopes to be ready this weekend against the Ravens.

Finals for Big Willie:

After twelve standout seasons as the best right tackle in Bengals history, Willie Anderson was among 15 former NFL standouts that have reached the doorstep of enshrinement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame with the announcement Wednesday night of the Finalists in the Modern-Era Player category for the Hall’s Class of 2023.

Comprising the Class of 2023’s Modern-Era list of candidates are 10 players who reached this stage in the selection process when the Class of 2022 was chosen, three players in their first year of eligibility and two players who are Finalists for the first time after a combined 35 years of eligibility. 

The slate of candidates in the Modern-Era Player category will be considered when the Hall of Fame’s Selection Committee meets virtually prior to Super Bowl LVII. The Class of 2023 will be unveiled publicly Feb. 9 during the “NFL Honors presented by Invisalign” broadcast from Phoenix on NFL Network, NBC and Peacock.

Anderson played for the Bengals from 1996-2007 before retiring after playing the 2008 season with the Baltimore Ravens. Anderson made an immediate impact as a rookie for the Bengals, as he was named to the 1996 All-Rookie Team (PFWA). Known as a strong run blocker and resilient pass blocker during the entirety of his 13-year tenure in the NFL, Anderson was considered an elite right tackle during his career and successfully held back such NFL sack leaders as Hall of Famers John Randle, Bruce Smith, Michael Strahan and Reggie White. He blocked for nine 1,000-yard rushers, as well as Corey Dillon’s two NFL record-breaking games: 246 yards for the rookie record and 278 yards for the all-time record that stood for nearly three years. He started in 184 of his 195 career games.

Ken Riley is also a finalist for consideration by the seniors committee and will also be up for induction when the Class of 2023 is announced on Feb. 9.