COLUMBUS, Ohio — Images say more and speak louder than any word.
Monday night, the images from Cincinnati were deafening at a time when so many couldn’t find the words.
“My heart hit my stomach and the crowd goes silent,” Josh Collins said.
It’s the first year Collins has been a Bengals season ticket holder. On game day, he and his son always find themselves inside Paycor Stadium with a handmade sign.
Monday night’s sign was to honor back-to-back seasons of wide receivers Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase getting 1,000 yards.
“It was just getting more exciting and then the bottom fell out,” Collins said.
When Buffalo’s Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field, a stunned crowd could only look on.
“You see the ambulance roll out of the tunnel like that,” Collins said. “I’ve never seen that before, so you’re in shock.”
During the broadcast, cameras took a shot of a man in the stands holding a plain, white piece of poster board. On it were the scribbled words “Pray for Buffalo #3 Hamlin.”
The image was captured and shared by the thousands and seen and appreciated by the hundreds of thousands on social media. That man was Collins.
Without saying a word, he spoke directly from his heart.
“Because that’s what the world needed,” Collins said. “That’s what everybody needed right then and there and we all needed to come together for [Hamlin].”
A man with a message that needed to be seen, heard, read and felt. The Canal Winchester father who coaches youth baseball and football stood in the stands so long that he was one of the last in the stadium to leave.
“The usher actually had to come to me and say ‘Hey we need to clear the stands’,” Collins said.
“Why stay there that long,” 10TV’s Bryant Somerville asked.
“Because there were still people walking out in tears and we needed to keep praying,” Collins said.
When tragedy happens sometimes what we need is not to say the right thing, but simply to do the right thing. And, the image of Collins says that for all to hear.