MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Mike McDaniel was sleeping when his wife woke him up to tell him Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field during a "Monday Night Football" game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
But the first-year Miami Dolphins head coach told reporters Wednesday that his "heart aches" for their AFC East Division rivals.
"I wish I could do something about it," McDaniel said during the first news conference since Hamlin's cardiac arrest. "Unfortunately, I can't."
Hamlin remained in critical condition at a Cincinnati hospital Wednesday. The Bills said Hamlin was still in the intensive care unit but showed "signs of improvement."
Players and fans throughout the NFL have offered their condolences, holding vigils in Cincinnati and outside the Bills' home stadium.
"The only slight, minute comfort that I do find is there is a – there seems to be a pervasive theme when tragedy occurs," McDaniel said. "For whatever reason, you end up seeing glimmers of the best face of humanity. So I think there has been examples of that, of people really aiding and supporting each other, and that is a slight solace to an otherwise terrible event."
McDaniel said he addressed the incident with his team and let them know "there's no way that you should feel."
"How you feel is how you feel, and it can affect people in totally different ways," he said. "But be there to support each other because you don't how your teammates are feeling. You may not know who's been affected, who's been directly affected, who's been a teammate of Damar. You just don't know how people are quite affected, so you have to set the standard that there's no way right, wrong or indifferent how to feel."
The Dolphins had a similar scare on the same field earlier this season when quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was injured after being slammed to the ground in a loss to the Bengals.
Tagovailoa was down for several minutes before being strapped onto a stretcher and taken to the same hospital where Hamlin is being treated.
Miami receiver Jaylen Waddle called Monday night's incident "difficult" and running back Raheem Mostert called it "nerve-wracking." Mostert said it also gave him flashbacks to September.
"That play is going to stick with me for the rest of my life as well," he said. "Just seeing how he responded and the way it happened and all of that stuff. Those things can haunt you."
The Bills-Bengals game was postponed with Cincinnati leading 7-3 in the first quarter. The NFL said the game would not resume this week and the upcoming weekend's schedule remains unaltered.
With the postseason set to begin Jan. 14, the question remains how the NFL will determine playoff seedings in the AFC. One possibility could be to push the playoffs back one week to allow the Bengals and Bills to finish the game, thus eliminating the bye weekend between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl.
McDaniel said he hasn't given any thought to an adjusted NFL schedule.
"Shoot, I would short circuit if I was chasing ghosts," he said. "I think you address and adjust to whatever is in front of you."
