Former Bills and Jets head coach Rex Ryan couldn’t hold back his emotion on Saturday’s special NFL Countdown. The current ESPN analyst is well known for his loud presence and temper on the sidelines, much like his father Buddy Ryan and brother Rob Ryan.
But during Saturday’s pre-game broadcast, Ryan showed some other emotions a lot of fans weren’t expecting. While discussing Damar Hamlin’s recovery and his first words since waking in the hospital, Ryan was overwhelmed.
Videos by PopCulture.com
As Fox News notes, he managed to keep things together enough to possibly hand off to a nearby Tedy Bruschi, but came apart in emotional fashion. “When he came out, ‘Did we win,’ we needed that,” Ryan said, referencing Hamlin’s first question after waking up in the hospital. “As fans, we needed it. This guy is a legend. A legend. You talk about a fighter? He’s a dang legend. Thank you. I needed it as a dad, as a coach and as a fan of this game.”
A rare sight in a week full of them for the NFL, capped by the positive recovery of Hamlin in the hospital. Hamlin is still in critical condition but his improvement since Monday’s horrifying scenes on the field is wonderful.
As Ryan notes, Hamlin’s first bit of communication after waking up and asking if the Bills had won against the Bengals. “You won. You won at the game of life,” they responded to him. “We had significant concern about him after the injury and after the event that happened on the field, but he is making substantial progress. As of this morning, he is beginning to awaken, and it appears that his neurological condition and function is intact. We are very proud to report that and very happy for him and for his family and for the Buffalo Bills organization that he is making improvement.”
“He continues to be critically ill. He continues to undergo intensive care in our surgical and trauma ICU. He’s being cared for by ICU neuro-critical care teams, trauma surgery and a cardiology team, as well as our expert nurses and respiratory therapists,” Dr. Timothy Pritts continued. “They are attending to him, and he still has significant progress that he needs to make. But this marks a really good turning point in his ongoing care.”
