A frightening scene took place overnight in Ohio as Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed during a game between his Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals. It has subsequently emerged that Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest. His heartbeat was restored by those who responded on the pitch before he was transferred to hospital where he remains in a critical condition. The match between the Bills and the Bengals was postponed as a result of the incident.
Johnny Sexton’s upright tackle technique is once again a hot discussion point after the Leinster and Ireland captain suffered a cheek injury while attempting to take down Connacht’s Jarrad Butler on Sunday night. The incident was notable for two reasons. Firstly, if Sexton has suffered a fractured cheek bone - and he visibly had a significant bruise on his face - then that could put not only his participation in the upcoming Champions Cup games in doubt, but also the Six Nations. Secondly, it was the exact sort of head-on-head collision featuring an upright tackler which has been heavily penalised and even carded in recent weeks. Johnny Watterson reports on what Leo Cullen had to say on the matter here. Elsewhere, it remains to be seen if Leinster are to be punished after Celtic Symphony - featuring the lyrics “Ooh ah, Up the Ra” - was played on their PA system following their win over Connacht. Speaking of punishment, Owen Doyle argues that Joe Marler’s punishment for calling an opponent’s mother a worker in the sex industry does not befit his misdemeanour.
The Kevin McStay era in Mayo began yesterday with a comfortable 1-20 to 1-9 victory over Sligo in Ballina. The Mayo goalscorer was Conor McStay, the new bainisteoir’s nephew. Speaking to the media afterwards, the elder McStay said: “We are happy with the workout. The attitude was very good, there were certain things we wanted to get done, certain targets we had in terms of conditioning, our skill and our shape was important to us, we are trying to work on our defensive shape.” Mayo’s first competitive game of the year comes on January 14th in the semi-final of the FBD League. In other GAA action, Davy Fitzgerald’s return as Waterford hurling manager gets underway today in a Munster league fixture against Tipperary. Gordon Manning previews the clash here.
Séamus Power gets back into the swing of things after the winter beak in the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Maui this week, a $15 million tournament (€14.07 million) confined to winners on the PGA Tour last year and those who finished inside the top-30 on the FedEx Cup. No other Irish player is in the field as Rory McIlroy will instead start his season on the DP World Tour in the coming weeks. The Holywood man uses up his one-time option to miss one of the 13 designated events on the PGA Tour without an excuse.
