Bills Reaction (Hour 4)

What's the strangest thing you're afraid of? Tails without fur on them, such as rats or opossums. I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast Your Weirdest Fears, where we dig into the crazy things you're afraid of. Everything from animal people hybrids, you know people who get surgeries to look like an animal, to giant statues.

If I ever saw one of those giant statues, I probably would poop my pants. Listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your secrets. your podcast from. Time for your daily news brief. We get you caught up on the rumors, reports and reconnaissance from the day in sports. Zach Gelb shows CBS Sports Radio. The best news that you will hear today, DeMar Hamlin has made remarkable progress.

He is awake. He's been able to communicate via writing. Still critically ill, but appears neurologically intact, lungs continue to heal and is making steady progress. And from what we did see unfold on Monday night to be here on Thursday evening, that is the best news you would think you could get so far.

And we just hope that it keeps on getting better and better and better. And we get to see DeMar Hamlin make a full recovery. Dr. Timothy Pritz says DeMar Hamlin opened his eyes on Wednesday night and actually asked via writing if the Bills won. We're in the situation where we wanted to allow him to gradually, you know, wake up as the rest of his body was healing.

And last night he was able to emerge and follow commands and even ask who had won the game. Timothy Pritz then said that DeMar Hamlin is the winner in life. To paraphrase one of our partners, you know, when he asked, did we win?

The answer is yes. You know, DeMar, you won, you've won the game of life. And that's probably the most important thing out of this. And we really need to keep him at the center of everything else that's going on. And we really want to ensure a good outcome for him.

And we hope we get that good outcome. Dr. Timothy Pritz, we'll hear one more from the doc, says DeMar Hamlin has progressed very well in these last 24 hours. We would like to share that there has been substantial improvement in his condition over the past 24 hours. 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.

It's just unbelievable. From where we were on Monday, and you started to hear some good news, but clearly today was the best news that you could get so far. And it's just wonderful to hear and you just keep on praying and hoping that it keeps on trending in that direction. Josh Allen did address reporters today. Also you had T. Higgins and Sean McDermott speak to the media. Let me play you this Josh Allen quote before we get you the quotes from T. Higgins. This is Josh Allen saying that T. Higgins did nothing wrong on Monday night. I haven't reached out to T. I hope that he got some relief today and I don't know, I saw some stuff on Twitter and people should not be attacking him whatsoever and I'm glad that DeMar's family came out and said that and hopefully he found some relief today because again that's a football play and I hope that he doesn't hold that upon himself because again there's nothing else that he could have done in that situation.

So I just wanted to say that too. We see a lot of good things on Twitter as you've seen in the response of everything that has unfortunately occurred with DeMar Hamlin and you've seen the way that people have rallied together through social media. But then you also know that there's bad on Twitter or any social media and for anyone that is suggesting that T. Higgins is at fault here you're just an absolute moron and that's as polite as I could say it and good on Josh Allen for saying what he said today about T. Higgins because he's 100 percent right.

He did nothing wrong. It's a football game. It's a football play being made and no one thought what happened to DeMar Hamlin was obviously going to happen and it's wrong for anyone to be saying that T. Higgins is at fault. T. Higgins discusses what his emotions have been like during the last few days.

Obviously it's been hard you know just because you know I have something to do with the play and whatnot. You know everybody's been making me feel whole again you know I talk to the talk to his mom and you know it's everything is okay he's doing good so I'm in a good place right now. Let's hear from more of Josh Allen as Josh Allen credits Sean McDermott for his tremendous leadership on Monday night. He was a perfect man in that situation to handle that that type of situation. I can't say enough about what he did what he said to us in the locker room. Obviously just a dire circumstance that nobody's expecting nobody's ready for.

There's nothing you can train about doing like you can never put yourself in that situation until it happens. I want to thank our you know coach mentioned it earlier but our training staff for going out there not knowing what's going on but going through a checklist working as a single cell symbiote like saving his life you know and is being on that field you lose sleep you hurt for your brother a lot of shared grief but to the question before getting updates and positive updates eases so much of that that pain and that tension that you feel but coach handled it as perfect as anybody could. You've also had quite a few bills players today you talk about what immediate happened immediately happened on the field Dion Dawkins passed this note along Denny Kellington's name let's praise his name and the person for reviving our brother Damar on the field Denny gave CPR and chest compressions to get his heart back beating hashtag Denny Kellington and also thank you to all the doctors and medical professionals that have helped and assisted number three. So I hear more from Josh Allen Josh Allen expresses how he felt when unfortunately saw Damar Hamlin go down. The scene just replays over and over in your head and there's again it's hard to answer that question and actually describe how I felt how my teammates felt in that moment and something we'll never forget but to know that Damar is doing okay and I know there's still a lot of a lot of things and stuff that he has to process and continue to go through to get back to himself we're just again we heard that news this morning and there's nothing that that could have been told to us to bring our day down you know we're extremely happy for him and his family you know we just want to we just want to love up on him you know so the next chance we get I don't know what it's going to be if we if we get to see him anytime soon it's going to be awesome.

And you hope that one day there's that moment where Damar Hamlin gets to walk back into that Bill's locker room and you just get to have just would be a very emotional scene with everyone embracing but clearly you're not human in this situation where obviously you want to pray and hope for the best but everyone's mind thinks what could happen and the negative side of it as well because it was a scary situation that we've never seen before and to just get positive news today it does bring a smile to your face it brings a smile to your face and just keep on hoping and hoping that you get better news. Josh Allen says that Damar Hamlin's father speaking to the team did make it easier to think about getting back on the field. I'd say from a player's view here in Mario talked to us the words of encouragement that he had for us and I had the chance actually to talk to him Monday night and the only thing he said was my son's going to be alright. And Josh did expand more into Damar Hamlin's father's speech that he gave the team earlier this week saying that guys really responded to it and now are ready to play on Sunday up against the Patriots. Mario talking to us as a team and the things that he he kind of told us and well he didn't tell us he demanded us you know and you can't not honor his his request to go out there and charge forward you know to the best of our abilities and obviously we'll be playing with I guess less heavy hearts now knowing that you know today's news was a lot a lot of tears of joy I'll tell you that but to know that that's that's what he wants that's what his dad wants I think guys are excited to get out there. Josh also says it's very encouraging that the first thing that Damar Hamlin asked when he woke up was if the Bills won the game on Monday night. His dad said the first thing that he's going to ask when he wakes up is who won the game and sure enough that's what he did man and as teammates he he loved hearing that response that the first thing on his mind wasn't you know poor me it was how are my teammates doing did we win this game and that's powerful in itself and I don't think people really understand the the bond and the relationship and the brotherhood that you have as an NFL team especially this one here guys love each other and we really do and for you know obviously Damar to go through that and to come out on the other side and still again just thinking about his teammates that's that's Damar that's who he is though. It's a special locker room in Buffalo and Buffalo is just really a special city now I've said this before I said earlier tonight I'll say it again my sister and cousin both attended university at Buffalo so I've been around the Buffalo community before and whenever you go to Buffalo it's about a few basic principles it's about family it's about food and obviously sports and everyone rallies around those three things whether it's spending time in a great community you know where do you go to get your wings and everything having a few drinks obviously throughout the day and then it's always around sports I've been to Buffalo for college football games bills games NCAA tournaments it's a wonderful community and really a special place with people that are so passionate and people that are so benevolent and you see in horrible tragedies that the Buffalo community has to suffer through this year how everyone tries to uplift just the entire community in the toughest of times whether it was the senseless shooting whether it was the deadly snowstorm or now with the Damar Hamlin situation Buffalo is really and truly a special place and that locker room that Bill's locker room the way that they have embraced the city and the way that they have been there to help the city this year through tragedy you knew when they were going through bad times that the city was going to be there for them as well play you one more from Josh Allen Josh Allen on how tough it will be to not think about Damar almost dying on the football field it's hard not to let it be creep into your mind you know we've been reassured this this is the freakiest of freak accidents and it took the worst possible timing for this to happen but again the mental aspect of it going out on that field if you have that that thought you know that's putting yourself at risk even more putting your teammates at risk even more and I know coach is going to do a good job and he's been doing a great job about making sure guys understand that and understand you know mentally like you have to be bought into but you know as again like as coach alluded to as humans it's hard to not feel that way and but just to know that again the track record of the league and and obviously there's injuries and that's that's part of the sport and this is the worst possible case scenario you can ever think of and again we're just we're just happy Damar's all right let's go to Bill's coach Sean McDermott Sean McDermott says he is very happy to hear the positive updates today on Damar Hamlin yeah very encouraging we've been getting incremental updates and Brandon and Nate Brandon Bean and Nate Bresky Nate being our head trainer as well as to Bonnie Richard stayed behind in Cincinnati at the hospital they've been there the whole time and so my hat goes off to them as well and but they've been giving us updates or Damar's doctors have been giving our doctors updates Dr. Bisson here in town and then the updates have flowed basically through either Brandon and Nate or Dr. Bisson or directly from Damar's doctors and the news has been very encouraging as as we all are up to date at this point and just extremely grateful coach McDermott also says his main focus right now is making sure everyone is okay moving forward to me the health and well-being of of your staff and your players is the number one job of a coach in this situation and so that includes mental health and on that topic Sean McDermott details that a team is mentally preparing to play on Sunday against the Patriots at one o'clock when Damar's father spoke to us again the days have have blended together here so today is Thursday so yesterday Damar's father spoke to the team and really his message was the team needs to get back to focusing on the goals that they had set for themselves Damar would have wanted it that way and I'm paraphrasing and so that includes our game against New England this week and I think that that has helped and and then again today the news today as Josh alluded to was it was a big was a huge help to getting us back to focused on on the game this weekend and we'll play one last clip here Sean McDermott says his leadership during the aftermath of Monday night was strictly about trying to do the right thing for the team I really feel like I did what anybody else would have done and and so when you're in those situations you just react and when you prepare for a game the game can slow down because you've prepared for the game and you visualized it ahead of time in this case I can tell you it was moving very slowly at the beginning just as we were as Damar was on the field it was time was just creeping by as we were trying to get a response to where you know how he was doing and then from that point on it moved very very quickly in terms of us trying to get to a decision and do the right thing and I think that's what it really comes down to is just trying to do the right thing for everyone involved that is Sean McDermott who once again just showed admirable leadership in the toughest of circumstances that is the news brief it is Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio what's the strangest thing you're afraid of tails without fur on them such as rats or possums I'm Larry Mullins host of the podcast your weirdest fears where we dig into the crazy things you're afraid of everything from animal people hybrids you know people who get surgeries to look like an animal to giant statues if I ever saw one of those giant statues I probably would poop my pants listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from you're listening to the Zach Gelb show it is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio you could always give us a follow on Instagram or Twitter at Zach Gelb that's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B or you could call us at eight five five two one two four CBS that's eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven and now let's go to William out in Manhattan Beach William that long time listener third time caller huge fan love the show you sound great good evening William thank you what's on your mind well so I you know I love CBS Sports Radio and one of the things I love about it is just the idea of sports and the loyalty that builds and the friendship that builds among teammates and just the togetherness is I'm a real particular to betrayal and I happen to host a radio show on this wonderful network in the morning yeah yeah I go by my stage name Bill Ryder oh yeah that guy that's always writer than you right yeah mostly it's like a 90 they get a study the 94 percent clip so every now and then you should call yourself that bill you'd be right a hundred percent of the times if you just call yourself Ryder than Hickey and I just wanted to tell you that that Ryan Hickey your guy the guy you know I spent a lot of time with when we were working together I thought we were friends I pushed him to fill in for me when I'm off yeah I got a few shifts came to LA and and ghosted me didn't even let me know he was in town I just want to give you a little heads up just to be weary now bill I'm gonna do right by my producer cuz what I learned from you even though we like to trash our producers you always have their back if someone else comes after them now this could be an interesting relationship since used to host this show and then Ryan did work for you but now he works for me and you still help him out so I gotta give Hickey a chance to defend himself because you know he would sit on his hands and not say anything if I didn't offer this opportunity I love that so Ryan real quickly hot take Hickey trace whatever you want to say is that true that you did not hit up bill and you did not try to go see the bill writer when you were out on the west coast 5 14 Sunday Pacific time texts am or pm pm ok happy new year my friend 8 17 or I'm sorry 5 17 p.m. Pacific time on Sunday bill three exclamation points new text happy new year three exclamation points new text no better ways are 2023 than in your hood exclamation no response well no response yeah go ahead bill it is a great place to spend New Year's Eve my hood and having spent three years then you obnoxious sunset photos and you got really upset I thought okay he's reaching out it's really sweet he's pointing out you know I'm in a pretty gray area I'm not gonna rub it in his face this doesn't read to me I don't look at it now no better way to charge him up to the 23 then your hood yeah I thought you were referring to my hood and me spending 2023 in it Ryan you gotta say the words I'm in LA pal so to be fair here and I'll kind of see whose side I'm going to take I think we need to work with Ryan and just being a little bit clearer because that's like a nice text that you would expect from Hickey in like a weird way it could be kind of defined in multiple different ways that's not exactly hey I'm here let's go hang out let's go get a few beers before I go see Penn State play Utah so bill I just think what you're starting to get here bill and this is what I'm getting understanding your guys's relationship or maybe the lack of it is now this is multiple times Hickey has been around you or close to you and has refused to see you maybe they're not getting the hint again maybe you're not getting the hint no no I definitely I definitely got I mean I've definitely gotten the hint I definitely understand now that Ryan hates me and I got to stop letting him fill in for me on the show like that's a mistake by me Zach and I got to own that right I think Stu would like to get that shift from 10 to 12 a full shift rate for two hours I think Stu would be open to that opportunity now but we don't pay guys a full shift rate for that you get you get a sample and a skittles from the crew yeah sorry Hickey's got a better age I don't mean to misunderstand anything else bill you got for us no the show sounds great I miss you guys I'm really glad you had me call in this has been super fun Ryan you're dead to me bro thank you there is a bill writer joining us on CBS Sports Radio I love how at the end we're now I'll defend you a little bit Hickey I love at the end he's like I'm glad you guys had me call in he texted me out of nowhere and just goes hey destroy your boy for me didn't tell me he was in LA and I was like okay you want to call it and discuss that and he goes I'm already on hold Hickey didn't screen my phone call did you want to see bill I would love to see bill right I knew I was not gonna see him so that's part of his writing I guess make more of an effort beforehand what do you mean but that you just didn't have time or this we were there for 40 hours okay we landed at like we got to my friend's apartment so that was a sympathy text that was like let me make it look like I care about you but I really don't care about you so I'll vaguely thank you that I'm there I just I just felt weird like I do I texted I'm going there like I just don't have a way to hang out because by the time everything you know I got to my friend's apartment seven o'clock a night on a Sunday night and we I knew we're going to be super early on Sunday on Monday and then by that point we just were cooked and we went to bed right after the game so it's not like I was there not even there for 40 hours you could have did dinner with bill on on Friday night or what is a Sunday night yeah Sunday night you could have done dinner with bill or he would have met you out for a drink that would meet you out for a drink anywhere I don't I mean that's maybe I should have asked that's what I mean but I know it's not exactly I'm sure he's not close to where my friend was I don't know a lot of excuse make far a lot of excuse is far I try to defend you I don't know if I can defend you on this one anyway let's get to the closing bell another day is in the books and we're taking stock of the sports world it's time to find out who's up and who's down let's end the day right and hit the closing bell only on the Zach Gelb show we'll only do one stock up today and it is the best news that you will get and that is obviously the news that we got earlier this morning about DeMar Hamlin that he has made remarkable progress he is awake he's been able to communicate via writing the first thing that he asked or one of the first things that he asked was did the bills win the game up against the Bengals even though he's still critically ill he does appear neurologically intact lungs continue to heal and he's making steady progress so wonderful news considering what we did see on Monday we just hope it keeps on getting better and better and a thank you to everyone that was so essential on the field and then also obviously now in the hospitals we give a stock up to DeMar Hamlin for making remarkable progress okay I got two stock downs today this is Chris Simms is this on NBC pro football talk right unbuttoned okay so Chris Simms has been critical of Jalen Hurts he has an opinion like everyone does and then when you're wrong on an opinion I guess there was some ranking list that he didn't include him in or he just wasn't as positive about Jalen Hurts and whenever that does happen especially when it happens in Philadelphia people are gonna remind you about that especially when you're wrong but it was ESPN who I guess reposted his thoughts on Jalen Hurts and Chris Simms wasn't happy about it listen up Jalen Hurts makes them better I know that and like you sports center Instagram for like putting it out again for like the third time in three weeks like off like really off ESPN sports center like seriously they didn't put it out that that that in my quote last week after the the Cowboys game but they're gonna wait to the game yesterday that's why I hate social media and you ESPN Sports Center one more time on the way out you wait till it's relevant you can slam someone you just you just I just don't I just said let's the right opportunity they have they've not made content in there anymore I mean damn stop jockeying me ESPN hold it in the whole context I feel like people think you went to your check like this was in the MVP debate right on text like who is most by me on Sports Center let's have a conversation if you want to really get into this Sports Center invite me on ESPN you scared little babies there you go they're scared they don't want any piece of me and babies yeah that's a low blow I'm do you think he'll be on there now now you know check it out in a heartbeat what you call them a baby now I'm just calling them the people that run their stuff over there not none of their on-air personality I like a lot of it's not personal this is it is personal so there's a handle there and that's right yeah all right let's see a head to head with you versus their social media band right and anybody sports center I want them all lock me in a room with them I'll take them yeah okay you may talk a tough game seems like you're a little sensitive there Mr. Sims so it was a Chris Sims take according sports rated WIP from a few weeks ago that Jalen Hurts isn't that valuable to the Eagles after this week's loss and Sims lost it so okay he freaked out about that that's seems like he desperately wants to just go on ESPN but you lose your mind like that over an old take that was exposed how many times that's happened to us laugh it off have a little fun light it up a little bit Chris geez it's not down to Chris Sims last night between Florida and A&M Florida had a one nothing lead at at tip-off after a technical free throw due to Texas A&M leaving their jerseys at the T motel causing a delay a game man whoever left the jerseys behind give them a stock down and I am ended up winning 66 to 63 that Sims reaction is really something picky yeah he how many hours I kind of the f-bombs there's at least like seven or eight I guess their afternoon show in Boston they do this thing called like worst take madness or something during March madness ever is the worst takes of the year and I guess he said something about Brady or the Patriots or say he always can't keep track with how many times Sims says something negative about the Patriots or Brady and they like jokingly said hey we're we want you to come on to talk about your worst take and he was like bleep you like back to them he goes how dare you do that this a joke of a radio show and they said okay we're gonna actually name the trophy after you that we hand out I like for you he caused the show with but since jeez you're that sensitive alrighty that guilt show back tomorrow football Friday be out bye-bye what's the strangest thing you're afraid of tails without fur on them such as rats or opossums I'm Larry Mullins host of the podcast your weirdest fears where we dig into the crazy things you're afraid of everything from animal people hybrids you know people who get surgeries to look like an animal to giant statues if I ever saw one of those giant statues I probably would poop my pants listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your broadcast from.