Damar Hamlin’s story is both terrifying and uplifting. The Buffalo Bills safety suffered a cardiac arrest on the football field on Monday, January 2, and had to be resuscitated by EMTs on the field as players and fans watched before being removed by ambulance. Two weeks later, he’s out of the hospital and visiting his team’s facility almost daily. While his health continues to improve, it will be some time before he returns to playing.
Football players are like many athletes in that sport involves other things besides the games and matches. It is a whole life surrounded by teammates, coaches and staff. It’s spending time with these people at work and sharing moments that have nothing to do with next Sunday or the next game.
Hamlin is not yet practicing or attending team meetings, but just being around teammates for brief spells is a return to normal for a person who dedicated much of his life to football and people who share that passion.
The silver lining playbook
Plenty has been and will be said about the dangers of football, which are valid concerns. However, this story has a happy ending where the player is alive and returning to his former life. That life is more than just playing for 60 minutes on the gridiron. It’s about everyone cherishing the moments as they come on and off the field and remembering that life is a fragile gift, even for tough guys in the NFL.
“Damar’s in the building now, almost starting daily, and so that’s, that’s good news,” said Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott, wrestling with words to explain the impact of Hamlin’s life-affirming ordeal. “And as he continues to improve, I think those are, you know, that certainly helps. So that’s gonna be — I mean, that experience — we’ll carry that with us, and there’s a challenge to that, but there’s also a lot of good that came from that. And I think right now we need to focus on the positives and the positives that came out of that, as opposed to the other piece of it right now.”