The first thing Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin asked when he woke up in a Cincinnati hospital was who won the game. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, let me set the stage. Last Monday night, I — along with millions of other people — settled in to watch football. I’m in a fantasy football league and one of my players is Tee Higgins, a wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals. In that game, Hamlin tackled Higgins in the most routine of plays. I know it was routine because I was watching it when I looked up to see my fantasy football player run and hopefully score me a bunch of points. Hamlin stood up after the tackle and then collapsed. It was horrifying. The first thing I thought, having watched Tua Tagovailoa collapse earlier this season, was it must be a concussion. My husband, sitting next to me on the couch, said, “It’s cardiac arrest.”

I was glued to ESPN for the next hour and a half, texting with a friend who was crying. If you didn’t see it, it was that traumatizing. I kept hoping he’d give a thumbs up sign. I kept hoping they’d say he was knocked out but was coming to. What we now know is that Hamlin received nine minutes of CPR on the field before being loaded into an ambulance and taken to a Cincinnati hospital. As I’m writing this, he is awake and responsive.

During the time after his collapse, we were informed that NFL management told players to take five minutes to pull themselves together and then the game would continue. I looked at my husband and said, “How can they possibly play this game?” My friend texted, “How are they not canceling this immediately?” Although the NFL later denied they gave a five-minute warning, it was what we were told while watching live. What I think happened next was the Bengals head coach Zac Taylor walked over to Bills head coach Sean McDermott and said, “We’re not playing.” They literally had just watched a teammate die; he was resuscitated, but he was dead on the field. Both teams walked off the field. Much time passed and then the NFL postponed the game. During this coverage, ESPN commentator Ryan Clark said that the NFL was desensitized to injury.

I have been so upset about this. When I heard what Hamlin said upon waking, I was horrified. How desensitized was he to his own injury that he prioritized the game outcome? My husband, who was a college athlete, said I didn’t understand because I was not a super competitive athlete. He completely understood why the first thing Hamlin thought upon waking was “Did we win?” And maybe he and athletes like him do understand this in a way I never will.

But here’s what I understand: Under no circumstances should we be so desensitized about injury that we as a society put a game over a human life. My fantasy football league sent a note saying how they will award points if the game is not replayed, and I totally don’t even care. Who cares? Damar Hamlin is lucky to be alive. Actually, he’s not lucky, he is alive due to a very specific reason: There were people on that field who did exactly what was necessary to save him.

On Dec. 22, Utah Rep. Melissa Ballard filed a bill to require training and informational materials for Utah youth sports as it pertains to seeing the warning signs of cardiac arrest. Just like my husband, she understands that sometimes the heart stops — in football, in basketball, in lacrosse, in soccer. And the most important thing you can do is shock it back into rhythm, which requires someone on the scene knowing exactly what is happening and doing the right thing immediately.

Whatever else happens in the Utah Legislature this upcoming session, I’m praying they pass Ballard’s bill. And I really hope they do not count the cost. Please, no one ask, “How much does it cost to have this defibrillator at a rural school?” Here in Utah, we cannot be that desensitized to death. Hamlin is alive and has a fighting chance because there was equipment on the field and first responders could get to him immediately. While we cannot expect every school in Utah to have NFL-level medical personnel, we can absolutely make sure our kids get a fighting chance with a defibrillator on site.

Leah Murray is a Brady Distinguished Presidential Professor of Political Science and the academic director of the Olene S. Walker Institute of Politics & Public Service at Weber State University.

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