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Damar Hamlin tragedy strips away typical NFL facade, revealing human side of the sport that's shamefully lacking

Related Topics: Damar Hamlin

What happens now?

It's a question being grappled with in so many corners of the NFL and beyond on Tuesday, as a young man lies in a Cincinnati hospital room in critical condition, his future uncertain. His future life, we mean, not his future as a football player.

For so long, the NFL's overlords have behaved as if nothing could stop the league, certainly not stop its profits. The oligarchs who have weathered all manner of should-be embarrassing headlines in recent years, from multiple team owner sex scandals to nuclear-waste levels of toxicity in workplace environments to continued abject racism in the form of race-norming and ignoring highly qualified Black coaching candidates.