First-and-10: A tragic reminder of NFL brutality’s high stakes

The games will go on. They always do. But Damar Hamlin’s life-threatening cardiac arrest during the Bills’ game against the Bengals on Monday night cast a pall on the NFL season like few events can.

NFL players go into this knowing that any play can be their last — whether they’re a league MVP or an undrafted free agent on the fringe of the roster. Bears wide receiver Johnny Knox was 25, an overachieving fifth-round pick in his third season in 2011 and three weeks removed from a career day against the Raiders — four receptions for 145 yards and a touchdown — when a devastating hit he took while trying to recover a fumble in a game against the Seahawks at Soldier Field ended his season and ultimately his career. Just like that.

The Knox episode is notable because it wasn’t just a tough football break — like Gale Sayers’ knee injury in 1968. The hit that Knox took was literally scary. It looked like it could have killed him.

It didn’t, and the brutality of the sport remains an occupational hazard that many players used to live for but now just accept as part of the cost of playing a sport that is addictive on multiple levels. Brian Urlacher once said he would not report a concussion if it meant he would have to leave the game. In 2014, Bears safety Chris Conte told WBBM-AM’s Zach Zaidman, ‘‘I’d rather have the experience of playing and, who knows, die 10, 15 years earlier than not be able to play in the NFL and live a long life.” That’s how addictive this sport is.

But career-ending injuries are one thing. Actual on-the-field, life-and-death situations are another. Hamlin apparently was in good health with no pre-existing conditions when he collapsed after tackling Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins. It appears he just took a bad hit at the exact wrong time. And now he’s fighting for his life.

Regardless of the tremendous odds against that happening, that has to shake any player who steps on the field — that a single hit can put you in a life-threatening situation.

As it turned out, Lions wide receiver Chuck Hughes had advanced arteriosclerosis — thickening of the arteries — when he collapsed and died late in a game against the Bears in 1971. Cardinals tight end J.V. Cain had an undetected heart condition when he died during a training-camp practice in 1979. College basketball star Hank Gathers had a heart condition before his death in 1990.

It remains to be seen if there were any underlying conditions that led to Hamlin’s situation. But right now, it appears that he was in the prime of his life one moment, fighting for his life the next. The game will go on, but the brutality of football reached a frightening level of reality Monday night — for those of us who watch the game, but especially for those who play it.

2. The Hamlin tragedy surely evoked bad memories for longtime Bears fans who witnessed Hughes’ death on Oct. 24, 1971, at Tiger Stadium. Hughes, 28, collapsed and died of a heart attack after running a pass route in the fourth quarter. Bears linebacker Dick Butkus was the first to realize the severity of Hughes’ condition and frantically called for medical personnel.

“Everyone thought he was faking, stalling for a timeout, but I saw his eyes . . . they were rolling back. He couldn’t fake that,” Butkus wrote in his book, ‘‘Stop Action.’’ “I turned and signaled the Lions’ bench. The officials were coming over, then they were running, the doctors were running. They were working on him, trying to get his heart going, pounding on his chest with their fists. When they carried Chuck Hughes off the field, I knew he was dead.”

Still, after Hughes was taken off the field, they played the last 1:02 of the game, which the Bears won 28-23. It was a different time.

3. Is the 41-10 loss to the Lions the first red flag of the Ryan Poles/Matt Eberflus era?

Poles’ housecleaning rebuild, the trades of Robert Quinn and Roquan Smith, the injuries and considerable rookie snaps excuse a lot of what has gone wrong this season. Their tenure has been about 2023 from the start. But even considering all that, the collapse against the Lions was an eye-opener. If that performance defines where the Bears are in their rebuild, it would take a lot more than Jalen Carter or Will Anderson to clean up that mess.

The Bears could argue that even during the losing streak, credible performances — such as having possession in the fourth quarter with a chance to tie or take the lead against the Eagles and Bills — indicated progress.

The Bears figured to take one step backward to take two steps forward next season. But after collapsing against Detroit, the Bears almost need a credible performance against the Vikings to prove the Lions game was a mystifying one-off and not a sign that they are spinning their wheels heading into next season.

4. Was it just eight weeks ago that Eberflus was getting questions about losing offensive coordinator Luke Getsy? The Bears had scored 33, 29, 32 and 30 points in consecutive games to improve from 31st to 20th in scoring. “He, to me, is a definite big-time [head-coaching] candidate,” Eberflus said before the Falcons game in Week 11.

That talk has cooled considerably in recent weeks and probably is on ice after the Bears had 30 net passing yards against the Lions.

But stranger things have happened. Mike McCarthy was hired by the Packers in 2006 as the offensive coordinator of a 49ers team that finished 32nd in total yards, 32nd in passing yards (with rookie quarterback Alex Smith having a 40.8 passer rating — the exact same rating Justin Fields had Sunday) and 30th in points in 2005.

5. If the Bears sit Fields against the Vikings in the season finale, it should be to avoid injury more than securing the No. 2 overall pick with a shot at the No. 1 pick. The Bears are plenty capable of losing with Fields — they’ve lost the last eight games he has started, so . . .

6. Fields’ performance against the Lions was a step back — 7-for-21 for 75 yards, one touchdown pass, one interception, 40.8 passer rating, sacked seven times. But it’s worth noting that he had been completing 65.7% of his passes in the previous 10 games.

When he was that bad earlier in the season, he was completing 50.8% of his passes (34-for-67) in the first four games. Quarterback development starts with accuracy, and Fields’ accuracy has improved significantly this season.

7. Those 30 net passing yards against the Lions not only were the eighth-lowest in the NFL in the last 10 seasons, but they also came against the worst defense. The Lions came in allowing 264.1 passing yards per game (30th in the NFL).

The Lions’ previous season best also was against the Bears — 150 yards at Soldier Field. So the Lions’ defense has allowed 90 net passing yards per game against the Bears this season and 272.2 per game against the rest of the NFL.

8. Did you know? If the Bears had beaten the Commanders (a 12-7 loss), Dolphins (35-32) and Lions at Soldier Field (31-30), they’d be 6-10 and have the ninth overall pick in the draft heading into Sunday’s game.

9. Josh McCown Ex-Bear of the Week: 49ers safety Tashaun Gipson’s interception and 56-yard return to the 7-yard line in overtime set up Robbie Gould’s 23-yard field goal in a 27-24 victory over the Raiders.

10. Bear-ometer: 3-14 — vs. Vikings (L).