The Real MVPs Of This NFL Season

Photo credit: Joshua A. Bickel/AP
Full disclosure: I’m not a huge professional football fan.
But after learning about what happened on the field during the Bills-Bengals game on January 2, I am a major NFL fan.
I’m talking, of course, about the scary moments that unfolded after Damar Hamlin suffered a sudden cardiac arrest.
Like me, you probably saw numerous stories about the quick, well-executed response that saved his life. But what you may not have seen was this excellent ESPN piece about the significant behind-the-scenes preparation that made this rapid response possible.
“Just like our teams with their players and coaches prepare for a game, our medical teams prepare also,” the NFL’s Chief Medical Officer Denny Kellington said at the beginning of the piece.
In fact the NFL’s medical teams have an extensive playbook that outlines exactly what should be done and by whom each time a medical emergency occurs in an NFL stadium. And as fortunate fate would have it, they had just added a new cardiac arrest step (appointing a code leader for each game) to that playbook at the beginning of this season.
Throughout the video, the doctors who were interviewed gave multiple shout-outs to the life-saving coordinated effort that took place on the field. And in perhaps my favorite quote, they highlighted the fact that the Bills had “the right people, with the right plan, with the right equipment in the right place at the right time.” Those “rights” probably sound familiar to those who’ve been around supply chains for a bit.
I encourage all of you to watch the video to learn more about this impressive emergency preparedness and training initiative, which also includes a 60-minute meeting that occurs an hour before the start of each NFL game.
Just as important I encourage you to use it as inspiration for creating or improving your company’s own emergency preparedness efforts. Because that kind of layered and evolving approach to preparedness is a great model we can all learn from. And the life-saving teamwork it leads to is something we can all happily root for.
Kathy Fulton
Executive Director
American Logistics Aid Network