Bills General Manager Doug Whaley made some headlines on Tuesday when he said during a radio interview that football is “a violent game that I personally don’t think humans are supposed to play.”
It was an odd position for a man charged with fielding a team of humans to play football to make while answering a question about wide receiver Sammy Watkins being injury prone. Hearing that from a team executive was particularly jarring at a time when the NFL is working hard to make the case that they are making the game a safer one.
On Wednesday, Whaley hewed more closely to that party line while walking back what he said the previous day.
“Clearly I used a poor choice of words in my comment yesterday morning,” Whaley said in the statement. “As a former player who has the utmost respect and love for the game, the point that I was trying to make is that football is a physical game and injuries are a part of it. Playing football no doubt is very physically, mentally, and emotionally challenging, and that is all part of what make the game so compelling to play and watch. The game has more protection for players now than ever, thanks largely to the safety advancements and numerous rule changes made by our league and promoted to all levels of football. I believe our game continues to have a bright future and I hope that this statement provides clarity as to the intent of my earlier comment.”
The brightness of Whaley’s future with the Bills will have plenty to do with how the team fares this season, making the health of the human beings he brought to Buffalo of paramount importance.