Eli Apple took things too far in his gloat about the Cincinnati Bengals beating the Buffalo Bills to advance to the AFC Championship.
The Cincinnati Bengals are moving on to the AFC championship game for the second year in a row and have every reason to be prideful of their performance. To get there, the Bengals took down the AFC East champion Buffalo Bills on the road in tough weather, a team favored by many to win the Super Bowl this year.
Not to mention, the Bills has every emotional reason to win this season. They’ve gone through multiple community tragedies and Damar Hamlin’s recovery has been nothing short of amazing and directly out in the open.
Throughout the game and after, Stefon Diggs has made it clear: Losing stinks and he’s not OK with the fact that the Bills haven’t made it to yet another Super Bowl. In response, Eli Apple mocked the team, but even worse, he took a shot at Damar Hamlin that just doesn’t feel right.
Eli Apple’s gloating hits a new low in Bills brag, dragging Damar Hamlin into the mix
Eli Apple quote Tweeted Stefon Diggs and said this:
“Cancun on 3”, with the heart hand emoji at the end of the Tweet.
https://twitter.com/EliApple/status/1617710425440935938
Cancun is a reference to the fact that the Bengals sent the Bills to vacation mode. But the emoji at the end, the hand with hearts, is a reference to Damar Hamlin. Hamlin has used that gesture throughout his college and professional career and in the wake of his scary on-field cardiac arrest incident, it became a symbol within the NFL community and beyond of support toward him and appreciation back from him for that support.
For Apple to use that symbol as a gloat about winning a game is, well, just not good. Hamlin’s story went far beyond the lines on the field, as most players would agree.
To use it as a reason to mock the Bills is just insensitive. There are plenty of reasons for Apple to gloat on the field of play itself, including Apple having the second-highest number of tackles on the team on Sunday. Hamlin, who wasn’t even on the field of play, shouldn’t have been dragged into the mix.
Eli Apple is already in poor graces with the Giants and Saints fanbases. Add the Bills to that list too, I guess.