"Unknown" high ranking official from Bills or Bengals trashes NFL and Troy Vincent for response

[Don Otreply]

1 hour ago, strive_for_five_guy said:

To make sure I have it clear, Troy works for the NFL at this point though, not the NFLPA, correct?

Don’t know, doesn’t change his character, 

[Low Positive]

6 minutes ago, DabillsDaBillsDaBills said:

 

As with many scandals it's not about the actual transgression, it's about the coverup. 

 

If Vincent had explained his actions and thought process (and perhaps apologized) this would be a non-story. His initial reaction was to follow the rule book and say the game should continue. Then, after the situation progressed and he had more discussions with Bills/Bengals/other NFL officials he ultimately agreed that the game should be postponed.  

 

Instead he's lying about it and saying he never once said the game had to resume. 

 

That's why this is a story and why he looks like a major asshat. 

Exactly. It took a while for those of us not on the field to know just how bad the injury was. For the first five minutes it looked like a bad concussion. It wasn't until they started talking about CPR that my primary concern was for Damar Hamlin's life and not the Bills lack of depth at safety.

[NORWOODS FOOT]

Don't want to disappoint Las Vegas, among others

[Beck Water]

11 hours ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

It’s not really about wanting another reason to be mad at the league at all. Especially for zac Taylor who had every reason to want the game resumed later in the week 

 

Did he (Taylor)?

 

The Bengals went into the Bills game 11-4 while the Ravens stood at 10-6.  If the Bengals lost later in the week then had a short week to prepare for the Ravens, they could have lost not only the #3 seed, but the div. championship

Edited January 10, 2023 by Beck Water

[ALLEN1QB]

Who cares move on geeeezzzz

[C.Biscuit97]

I get why you need “unknown sources” but it is really cowardly to trash someone and not be your name to it. 

[Beck Water]

31 minutes ago, Don Otreply said:

Don’t know, doesn’t change his character, 

 

Has not worked for NFLPA since 2008.  Had a scandal while there.

 

Have thought he was a low-character guy since the Losman incident.

[Lake Ontario]

Interesting with this insight to think about how broken up Troy sounded the next day.  More than sympathy behind those tears?

 

Also interesting Diggs has not been available to the media very much after last Monday's events.  For him not to be on the podium as a captain, leader, catching the bomb against Pats...  he might want to stay away from a mic for a while due to bad taste in his mouth.

[BillsFanSD]

39 minutes ago, DabillsDaBillsDaBills said:

 

As with many scandals it's not about the actual transgression, it's about the coverup. 

 

If Vincent had explained his actions and thought process (and perhaps apologized) this would be a non-story. His initial reaction was to follow the rule book and say the game should continue. Then, after the situation progressed and he had more discussions with Bills/Bengals/other NFL officials he ultimately agreed that the game should be postponed.  

 

Instead he's lying about it and saying he never once said the game had to resume. 

 

That's why this is a story and why he looks like a major asshat. 

Sure, but this is just about Troy Vincent being an asshat within normal asshat parameters.  It's not about the league being evil or anybody doing anything unreasonable on Monday night.  Just one guy who doesn't understand that he's failing at CYA.  

[DaggersEOD]

12 hours ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

It must be because the majority of the people in r/nfl were praising the nfl for handling it perfectly and anyone suggesting the nfl wanted to continue the game was pretty much attacked lol.  Maybe we have a different perspective in Bills world 

Isn’t this the way all controversies concerning people with power are handled?

 

Mind your place serf

[Beck Water]

1 hour ago, strive_for_five_guy said:

To make sure I have it clear, Troy works for the NFL at this point though, not the NFLPA, correct?

 

Correct

[BuffaloRebound]

5 minutes ago, BillsFanSD said:

Sure, but this is just about Troy Vincent being an asshat within normal asshat parameters.  It's not about the league being evil or anybody doing anything unreasonable on Monday night.  Just one guy who doesn't understand that he's failing at CYA.  

There had to be at some or all of the 32 owners telling Goodell what to do and then feeding that to Vincent.  A guy dying on the field is the worst possible thing for business.  There’s no way the owners weren’t pulling the strings.  Probably why it took so long to cancel.  Needed to get a hold of the owners to approve the cancellation.  Goodell and Vincent are highly paid PR guys put out there to take fire for the owners.  They make no major decisions on their own and this would qualify as a major decision.  

[BillsFanSD]

2 minutes ago, BuffaloRebound said:

There had to be at some or all of the 32 owners telling Goodell what to do and then feeding that to Vincent.  A guy dying on the field is the worst possible thing for business.  There’s no way the owners weren’t pulling the strings.  Probably why it took so long to cancel.  Needed to get a hold of the owners to approve the cancellation.  Goodell and Vincent are highly paid PR guys put out there to take fire for the owners.  They make no major decisions on their own and this would qualify as a major decision.  

I think the probability of any of the owners (with the possible exceptions of the Buffalo/Cincinnati owners) talking with Goodell ruing the ~30 minutes that this played out is very close to zero.  It's far more likely that this went exactly how everybody thinks it went.  The league office expected play to resume, just like it always has in every other game.  The Bills and Bengals refused, and somebody was able to explain to the league that the situation on the field was significantly worse than the folks in New York were thinking.  Then the league pulled the plug.  Bob Kraft or Jerry Jones or somebody was probably not sitting around watching the game and getting patched through to Goodell.  

[WEATHER DOT COM]

20 minutes ago, BillsFanSD said:

I think the probability of any of the owners (with the possible exceptions of the Buffalo/Cincinnati owners) talking with Goodell ruing the ~30 minutes that this played out is very close to zero.  It's far more likely that this went exactly how everybody thinks it went.  The league office expected play to resume, just like it always has in every other game.  The Bills and Bengals refused, and somebody was able to explain to the league that the situation on the field was significantly worse than the folks in New York were thinking.  Then the league pulled the plug.  Bob Kraft or Jerry Jones or somebody was probably not sitting around watching the game and getting patched through to Goodell.  

 

Think this is close except this part I'm about to cross out... 

 

The Bills and Bengals refused, and somebody was able to explain to the league that the situation on the field was significantly worse than the folks in New York were thinking.  Then the league pulled the plug. 

 

After the teams refused to play, the league started to cover their tracks with what happened.

[GaryPinC]

So, this is a really interesting story to me as a high ranking official is going off record about primarily Troy Vincent.

In case you haven't, I strongly recommend reading the ESPN original article for better details:

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/35393227/how-bills-bengals-led-way-damar-hamlin-collapsed

 

For me here are what I view as "facts"

 

This person speaks entirely in first person about events, especially Dawn Aponte.  They seem very closely tied to these situations.

This person speaks about willingly forfeiting the game if needed.

It was a team official, not an NFL person, ESPN person, or referee.

This person really disparages Troy Vincent.

 

"The league screws this s--- up because Troy Vincent screws this stuff up," the official said. "That's the wrong person in the wrong position at the absolute wrong time. ... He wants to be the hero, but he will never take accountability. That's him to a T."

 

So for me, I think it comes from the Bills as they would have been the ones to forfeit if needed.  Knowing how tight the FO is with their information, I believe this is Brandon Beane as the source.  He can be a bit of a hothead as an old article references and this other quote about Aponte I can totally see him saying:

" "Whatever crazy nonsense she was getting," the official added, "man, she held it. She held it strong."

 

So, I think this source was extremely close to the situation which would be Beane, McDermott, Taylor, Aponte and the ref.  If it came from the Bills, I think their management is such that it would be discussed and Beane would be the one to step up and take action.

 

Some other interesting points was that DeMaurice Smith of the NFLPA talked to Goodell around 9:10 and recommended cancelling the game.  Buck said they were putting out info about restarting for most of the entire hour and no one from the NFL called to correct them.

 

Was Vincent trying to tell Goodell one story(players haven't decided) and the people under him another(get the game restarted)?

 

Clearly the source's issue is with Vincent, and it sounds like there's a history there.   I have no idea if Beane experiences align with this, but it is completely plausable that night.

 

Why anonymous?    Maybe it's a calculated game of chicken to put the info out to the public but force the NFL to deal with him and Vincent behind the scenes, instead of glossing things over and moving on.  Is Vincent trying to extract retribution from those under him like Aponte?  He switched sides and sounds like a very poor, duplicitous leader.

 

Anyways, thanks to those who feel it came from Cinci and your reasons.  Wonder where this one will end?  

[BuffaloRebound]

19 minutes ago, BillsFanSD said:

I think the probability of any of the owners (with the possible exceptions of the Buffalo/Cincinnati owners) talking with Goodell ruing the ~30 minutes that this played out is very close to zero.  It's far more likely that this went exactly how everybody thinks it went.  The league office expected play to resume, just like it always has in every other game.  The Bills and Bengals refused, and somebody was able to explain to the league that the situation on the field was significantly worse than the folks in New York were thinking.  Then the league pulled the plug.  Bob Kraft or Jerry Jones or somebody was probably not sitting around watching the game and getting patched through to Goodell.  

I disagree.  Owners like Kraft and Jones were almost certainly on speed dial.  NFL is a $100B organization.  This was its worst nightmare.  No way Goodell and certainly not Vincent were calling the shots.  

[Saxum]

1 hour ago, NORWOODS FOOT said:

Don't want to disappoint Las Vegas, among others

 

I wonder what odds are in Vegas on a game being cancelled?

38 minutes ago, BuffaloRebound said:

I disagree.  Owners like Kraft and Jones were almost certainly on speed dial.  NFL is a $100B organization.  This was its worst nightmare.  No way Goodell and certainly not Vincent were calling the shots.  

 

So we can blame Jones and Kraft for scandal.  Cool.  Too bad the other member of Axis of Evil is on ignore list.

[muppy]

3 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

I don't understand why this is still an issue

 

The teams decided they weren't going to continue at some point

 

teams/coaches aren't allowed to cancel games

 

who cares at this point?

hmm well if the Bills had walked off the field and by that action the statement is "we aren't playing". that's tough beans for the NFL. ....Would McDermott have willingly and SINGULARLY defied the NFL's wishes to go back? I  don't know.  But yes it IS a moot point now. But its an interesting discussion into what the NFL is really all about when push comes to shove

 

I care because even though the right thing happened for a multitude of good reasons IF the NFL's position was They Must Resume Play it shows they care only about their money. It would have been a terrible callous look.

 

Yes an very unprecedented happenstance. I maintain mad respect for Both teams.  The NFL response I want to give them the benefit of the doubt considering ALL the circumstances. 

 

 

Edited January 10, 2023 by muppy

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

15 hours ago, ToGoGo said:

Amazing article. 

 

Stuns me how some people can lie like that and live with themselves. 

 

Like they often say, the coverup is usually worse than the initial lie.

 

 

14 hours ago, BillnutinHouston said:

 

I disagree.  The Bengals reps were in the hallway also, and it's the Bengals who are most upset at the league's  seeding proposal, thus (in my opinion) are the ones most likely to be sniping at the league at this point.

 

Also too the Bengals reps were probably thinking more clearly and maybe heard better everything that was being said.  They were probablt more in a listening mode than the Bills were that night.  Could more see McD and Beane having one ear on the discussion and the other in the locker room and a 3rd at the hospital.  So may not have heard much of anything clearly.

 

Bengals less preoccupied.

[HurlyBurly51]

This went down pretty much as suspected, despite the know it all "conspiracy" accusers that night.