While speaking with the media on Wednesday, NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent strongly denied ever giving the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals a five-minute warmup period to resume Monday night's game after Damar Hamlin collapsed due to cardiac arrest. 

ESPN play-by-play announcer Joe Buck said multiple times on the broadcast the NFL had given an initial instruction to teams to resume play after a five-minute warmup.

"I just want to be clear," Vincent said. "Just that suggestion alone was inappropriate, it was insensitive and, frankly, it lacked both empathy and compassion for Damar's situation, who is still and was fighting for his life this day. It lacked complete, and it was just so insensitive to think that we were even thinking about returning to play.

"The only thing that mattered to myself, the team here, the folks in the stadium and the coaches was the health and wellness of Damar and getting those coaches back to the locker room so they could look those players in their eyes and see who they are. They were hurting, there was a lot of pain. And talking to the commissioner [Roger Goodell] and communicating with everyone, it was just important … we just couldn't play."

The Bills-Bengals game, which saw the Bengals leading 7-3 with 5:58 remaining in the first quarter when play was suspended, remains postponed indefinitely.

Buck told the New York Post this week that the information came from ESPN rules analyst John Parry, a retired long-time NFL official who refereed two Super Bowls.

Parry, Buck told the newspaper, is in direct communication with the league.