Sal Capaccio | Buffalo Bills Sideline Reporter

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Visit BetterHelp.com slash positive and save 10% on your first month. If you're feeling down and having trouble getting up in the morning, here's a tip. Brush your teeth.

That's it. Often when we wake up, our brains go into planning mode, which leads to overthinking and stress before our head even leaves the pillow. Something simple like brushing your teeth can break that cycle and jumpstart your day. This tip was brought to you by BetterHelp Online Therapy, which connects you with a licensed therapist via video, phone, or online chat.

Visit BetterHelp.com slash positive and save 10% on your first month. Sal Capaccio sent me a text. He's the Buffalo Bills sideline reporter. And he sent me a text to say that he was back and was in Western New York and would have a couple of minutes when he was driving home. So we're right now kind of waiting for him to make sure that we can get him on the air.

And I don't want to start anything else before I do that. But if you're just joining us and you didn't hear about what happened on Monday Night Football, the game was very early in the first quarter. The score was seven to three or something like that, or it is seven to three. And Damar Hamlin made a tackle. This was in the opening quarter on Monday night. And then even as he stood up, then he seemingly it was a routine moment.

And then he fell backward. And that's when everything changed there in Cincinnati. So Sal Capaccio is with us now here on CBS Sports Radio.

And Sal, I'm just going to jump right in. Where are you? And are you able to tell us at least the latest that you've heard, right? Yeah, I just got off the team plane. I travel with the team. I'm the radio sideline reporter, as you know, Amy, and I'm just driving home. And I got in my car, I turned on, I heard you. And, you know, you and I, we've developed friendship over the last few years. And I haven't done anything on air really after this tonight. And, you know, I just wanted to kind of talk with you about it with your listeners and, you know, just give an update if you wanted it, you know?

Yes, please. And I appreciate that. I'm sure it's been extremely emotional. I just want to say really quickly, I actually heard you at the end of your broadcast with Eric and the Bills Radio Network and your sign off.

And I just remember thinking, wow, it's so, so odd, right? We should be in the middle of a game. Maybe it should be halftime now. And they're signing off.

I heard Westwood One do the same thing. So I did hear you a couple of hours ago. So what have the last few hours been like, Sal? Really just surreal, obviously. A lot of emotion, a lot of confusion from a lot of people. You know, we don't know what's going on. Everybody's wondering what's going on with Tamar, obviously.

That's first and foremost in everybody's mind. I will tell you, when the game, you know, was postponed, I mean, even from a person who, you know, my job and then getting home, like, what's going on? Are we staying here? Are we not staying here? Are we going to the hospital? Are players going to the hospital?

You know, getting on the plane and coming home. Everybody was just, you know, more concerned about Tamar than anything and wanted to, you know, be with him, I guess, if you could. And I know a lot of staff members did. Sean McDermott did. Brandon Dean did. But everybody came back on the plane. The Bills team members, except for Tamar, obviously. I was told Brandon Bean is still at the hospital with him.

So is his mom and dad, Tamar. And obviously, you know, there's fans out there. There were some fans at about here at 2.45 a.m. outside the Buffalo airport, outside the security perimeter showing their support.

There were about 20 or 30 fans that I saw. But really, it was just a lot of emotion, a lot of confusion more than anything, I would say. I know that the team plane is kind of sacred and I wouldn't want you to violate any, you know, any type of your, you know, your confidence there with them.

You're around these players all the time. But as much as you can, what was the atmosphere like on the plane? Just quiet, just somber. You know, just people just not, you didn't hear much. But, you know, it's late. It's been a long night. Obviously, everybody's, you know, concerned about Tamar. But more than anything, I mean, you know, I think people, and I will tell you, though, that a lot of times it's like that. Anyway, when it's just quiet and people try to get work done or sleep or something, especially if they're at game. But, you know, it was definitely you could feel, feel that, you know, it was weighing on everyone.

I would just say it that way. Sal Capaccio is with us from Western New York, where he just sent me a text and offered to come on and share what he knows. The update from the Bills is that Tamar suffered a cardiac arrest, but he is sedated and is in critical condition, still in Cincinnati. He's a second year player. He's just 24 years old. Sal, what kind of a young man is he?

What kind of a guy is he? So funny. I was thinking about all that on the way back tonight. And I have two funny stories about Tamar.

They'll kind of give you some insight on that. Number one, you know, Tamar took over really for Micah Hyde when Micah got hurt. He's been starting for Micah Hyde ever since. And I remember one of these, sorry, one of the games several weeks ago and he had a nice game and the Bills won. I always do an on-field interview after the game.

I find somebody to talk to and I usually Josh goes and does with CBS or one of the receivers or something like that. So I'll find somebody just, I had a nice game and I ran up to Tamar and this has never happened because he doesn't, you know, he hasn't played all that much. And I said, Tamar, Tamar, I said, do post-game interview. And he kind of looked at me like I had three heads. Like he was, no, no. I mean, he was like, he wasn't even, he didn't want to talk. And I said, Tamar, you'd be literally the only person who's ever said no to me in this situation. He goes, Oh, okay.

I'll do it then. He was all business. He didn't want to talk to anybody on the radio about the football game.

He just wanted to get in the locker room and celebrate. Right. So that was funny. Um, and I remember then also the week they played the Pittsburgh Steelers and Mike Tomlin in his press conference leading up made a reference to Tamar Hamlin and said, he's a, whatever the area code is in Pittsburgh.

I don't know off the top of my head. Um, but he said, he's a, you know, that kid, whatever, two, one, two, or whatever it is, area code. He said, he's a Pittsburgh kid, basically. And he talked about him.

So I went and I saw them are, uh, in the locker room. Like a day later and I said, did you hear Tomlin talk about you? And he said, yeah, he says, you just got a lot of respect for him. And just, he lit up for the fact that another head coach had something like that to say in his press conference to know about him and to mention him in his lead up to the game.

And that was cool. Tamar's a, Tamar's just a, a really, really good person, you know, and you can't say that enough. You've talked about the foundation that he has.

He's in his second year. He's found a way to do what a lot of these guys do in Buffalo, which is they set up these foundations. They have charitable causes and you always tell everybody, Amy, you know, as you know, we're not in New York or Chicago or LA, you know, what separates, I think this team and this organization, these, these players from a lot of other players.

And I know they do it in other cities, but almost like every one of these guys has something like that, that they connect to the city. That's what it's about. It's about connecting with these players and connecting with the organization.

And that's what Tamar did already in his second year. And he was already doing the toys and things like that for the kids. And you've seen the videos, you see the donations pouring in, but I'll tell you, he's, he's all business. You know, when you, like I said, when you talk to him in the locker room about football, he's all about ball and he, he takes his craft seriously. He knows the situation he's in filling in for Mike to hide what this season means to the Buffalo Bills.

And he goes out there and works his butt off every single day. When you got him to do the interview, did you get some good stuff out of him? I think so. You know, it's, it's usually like three questions. Like, Hey, tell me about this.

You guys did that right. You know, once he's into it, he starts talking. He's, and by the way, he's, he's really, he's great when he talks. He just, I don't think he loves doing it.

You know what I mean? But when he gets going with you, he loves, he, uh, he's really good at it. And, um, just a very approachable young man. Um, I think because, you know, he's all about business and things like that, you know, you know that when you talk to him that he wants to talk football and, um, you know, but when then you see the other side of him, you see those videos and you see him doing the things he does for his charitable causes and things like that. But it was just so emotional tonight, you know, and I shared on Twitter that his mom was down by the wall when he was on the field and she came down, I was on the sidelines there and I saw a woman wearing a blue number three Jersey.

And she said to security, you know, she wanted to come down and be by her son. It's my son on the field. And that just really hit me. You know, I mean, I, I have a nine year old, he doesn't, he plays sports. I grew up playing football. My mom was involved in my life and we're all been around. I coached high school football.

I know, I know what it means to have, you know, a parent that, you know, is concerned like that. And now you hear the, in the ultimate arena here in Monday night football in this situation where this was happening and you know, I don't even think by that time we all knew the severity of it, but I remember that happening and there, the way that the stadium is constructed at Paycor stadium is you couldn't get right down on the field. So it was a security guard there. And then the bills team chaplain was walking over.

And, um, in fact, if I remember correctly, now I think back Dane Jackson, Dane actually played with the Mar at Pitt and he's one of his teammates here in Buffalo. He got the attention of the bills team chaplain pointed out to Mars mom. Chaplain went over there, talk and the hit with security.

They got his mom to get to an area where she could come down and, um, her and her and his dad joined, um, the ambulance when it came off. Um, Sal Capaccio is the bill sideline reporter is now back in Western New York after flying home on the team plane, uh, and is kind enough to call up with just a little bit of insight from behind the scenes. I don't want to keep you too much longer, Sal, but as you were there, and as you say, we didn't even realize the severity of it at initially.

I hate to say this, but it's true. We've seen players, even the season kind of stagger backward and fall over. And generally your, your brain jumps to some type of a head injury or a hit to the head.

At what point did you realize that this was something serious and different? So when the play was over, like you said, it was, it's kind of a different injury. Like he wasn't, he got up and I didn't know who it was, but I did see, I specifically saw him fall. And when I saw him fall, he fell backward motionless and I got concerned right away.

Now that's part of my job as a sideline reporter is to literally after every play, just kind of scan to see if there's anybody who's getting up slowly, something like that. Well, I saw him fall. We didn't know who it was on the broadcast.

We didn't know who it was initially. Because I think Jordan Poyer was there making the tackle and someone had said, I said that Poyer was there, but he got up and then we couldn't tell. So that's what I saw. But then my next thing that I saw was there were Cincinnati Bengals players immediately calling for someone to come off the sideline.

When you see that and you've been around enough, you know that when they know that quickly that there's something wrong, there's something very wrong. So as soon as that happened, my thought was initially, of course, a neck injury, right? We saw that happen with, speaking of Dane Jackson, that happened to him on Monday night against the Tennessee Titans owner. And he went off in an ambulance and, you know, right away, man, you know, you see people calling for people. So that was what I saw. I saw him fall backward, motionless, hit the ground, and he just wasn't moving. And Bengals players were calling for medical personnel to come out on the field. And what really struck me, when I knew, the time, Amy, that I knew that was the most serious something I've never seen before.

Bills players went out on the field and the staff, everybody, every single person on the sidelines, went out on the field and formed a huge circle with their backs to DeMar and their fronts to the fans so that no one could see what was happening. And that's when I knew something severe was going on in that area. And then, you know, were they performing CPR?

That's what you think. And then, sure enough, that's what was happening. I don't know that I've ever seen a sideline that was completely empty like that.

And that jumped out at me. As you point out, all the players had gone out to where the ambulance was, to where DeMar was on the field. And I remember looking over to the sidelines, there's nobody over there.

There's nobody on the sidelines. And then, even after the ambulance had departed the field, they all got together in a large group as a total team to pray. And seeing the video, it's very stark because you can see them all in one big group, even as the ambulance drives off toward the tunnel. So, Sal, I imagine it was super emotional for you and there in the stadium. I really appreciate you taking a couple minutes to call in. And we had been looking over your tweets, as I say, I heard you on the air, so I've been also following your tweets as well. And, as always, you do an amazing job, even though these are circumstances that no reporter ever wants to find himself in. So, thank you, Sal.

No problem. Glad to be able to join you tonight and maybe give a little update from everyone. I know you've been keeping everybody updated on what the bills have said. So, we're going to hopefully hear better news in the morning and good news.

We're all obviously thinking about DeMar and vote for him and his entire family. So, thanks for having your phone line open and for giving me someone to talk to about this tonight. Oh, of course. And I'm assuming that you will be on the radio in Buffalo at some point tomorrow, too. You can find Sal on Twitter at SalSports. Thank you for the stories about DeMar. That adds certainly a different element since you know him personally. Thanks, Amy. Much better. Longer term, there's BetterHelp online therapy.

They'll match us with the licensed therapist we can connect with via video, phone, or chat. Visit BetterHelp.com slash positive and save 10% on our first month. If you're feeling down and having trouble getting up in the morning, here's a tip. Brush your teeth.

That's it. If you're feeling down and having trouble getting up in the morning, here's a tip. Brush your teeth. That's it. If you're feeling down and having trouble getting up in the morning, here's a tip. Brush your teeth.

That's it. Often when we wake up, our brains go into planning mode, which leads to overthinking and stress before our head even leaves the pillow. Something simple like brushing your teeth can break that cycle and jumpstart your day. This tip was brought to you by BetterHelp online therapy, which connects you with a licensed therapist via video, phone, or online chat. Visit BetterHelp.com slash positive and save 10% on your first month.