Picture from Insider.com
On January 2, 2023, football fans watched as the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals were set on battle on Monday Night Football, a primetime game with significant playoff implications. The Bills sat at 12-3 and the Bengals at 11-4, atop the AFC, and this game would help decide the top 3 seeds of the conference, with the two teams competing with the Kansas City Chiefs for the number 1 seed. A marquee matchup between two very promising young teams with star quarterbacks in the Bengals' Joe Burrow and the Bills' Josh Allen.
With 9 minutes played through the first quarter, tragedy struck. After a routine tackle on Bengals receiver Tee Higgins, Bills safety Damar Hamlin suddenly collapsed backward. The Bills' medical staff rushed onto the field as both Bengals and Bills players began freaking out, this kind of moment was unprecedented in their playing careers. Assistant trainer Denny Kellington rushed to Hamlin to give him CPR for minutes, as the panic within the stadium ensued. The training staff would proceed to use a defibrillator to attempt to shock Hamlin's heart back into motion. Around 16 minutes after the collapse, an ambulance came onto the field and took Hamlin to the nearby University of Cincinnati Medical Center. All during this, both teams' players sat on the sideline in shock and in tears, fearing that they had just lost a teammate and football brother. The Bills sideline would join together, kneeling, in a prayer circle.
Pictured above: The Buffalo Bills sideline kneeling together in a prayer circle (Picture from The New Yorker)
After Hamlin was taken out of the stadium, the NFL had a decision to make: postpone the game, cancel it, or give the players a second to collect their emotions and then continue the game. As the event unfolded to millions via TV, announcer Joe Buck repeatedly stated that the league was giving the players five minutes to warm up and then resume the game, per a video posted to Twitter by Timothy Burke. While NFL executive vice president Troy Vincent would tell Pro Football Talk that the league did not request a 5-minute warmup period, both teams were clearly too shaken up to even consider playing. Fans in the stadium stood by, praying for Hamlin's condition as well as hoping they would hear a decision about the state of the game soon. By 9:55 PM, the game was announced to be postponed indefinitely. A lone fan was spotted in the stands with a sign he had just created, one that read "Pray For Buffalo #3 Hamlin".
In the medical center, Hamlin was reported to be in critical condition and breathing through a breathing tube. Quickly, it was reported his vitals returned to normal, but Hamlin remained sedated. A cause of the collapse was found: cardiac arrest, caused by commotio cordis, which is caused when an object "strikes the chest directly over the heart at a very critical time during a heartbeat", according to Cleveland Clinic. By the night of January 3, all 32 NFL teams had changed their Twitter profile pictures to a picture of a #3 with the words "Pray for Damar" above it. A wide range of NFL players, current and retired, as well as many other athletes had tweeted reactions to the incident and offered prayers and love to Hamlin and his family.
Pictured above: The profile picture all 32 NFL teams used following Hamlin's collapse (Picture from WKBW)
On January 5, it was reported that Hamlin was woken up in the hospital. According to Dr. Timothy Pritts, who watched Hamlin's progress, Hamlin was able to communicate by nodding or shaking his head and writing. He asked on paper who had won the Monday night game, to which Pritts replied ‘Yes, Damar, you won. You won the game of life." By January 7, Hamlin finally publicly spoke via Instagram, stating, "The Love has been overwhelming, but I’m thankful for every single person that prayed for me and reached out. We brung the world back together behind this. If you know me you know this only gone make me stronger. On a long road keep praying for me," Fox News reported.
The love for Hamlin was not only shown on social media, but through a significant surge of donations to Hamlin's "Chasing M's" toy drive foundation on GoFundMe. The foundation, founded in 2020, had an initial goal of $2,500, but by the day following Hamlin's collapse, the charity had received a total of $3 million.
Hamlin was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the sixth round of the 2021 NFL Draft, out of the University of Pittsburgh. Through 15 games played in 2022, Hamlin had 91 combined tackles, 1 forced fumble, and 1.5 sacks. During his time at Pittsburgh, he was named to the All-ACC second team.
The Bills-Bengals match was officially canceled by the NFL on January 6. Both teams will keep their records and go on to play their next games in their schedules later in the week.
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