The NFL’s Monday Night Football Game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Buffalo Bills was halted after Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field.
Buffalo Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin was in critical condition Monday night after collapsing on the field during the Monday Night football showdown with the Bengals.
The game was officially suspended about an hour after the incident and about 30 minutes after Hamlin was taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Medical center officials did not expect to have an update on Hamlin’s condition late Monday night.
An NFL statement said Hamlin was in critical condition.
The Bills issued the following statement at 2 a.m. Eastern: “Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest following a hit in our game versus the Bengals. His heartbeat was restored on the field and he was transferred to the UC Medical Center for further testing and treatment. He is currently sedated and listed in critical condition.”
Jordon Rooney, who identified himself as Hamlin’s marketing representative, posted an update on Twitter saying Hamlin’s “vitals are back to normal and they have put him to sleep to put a breathing tube down his throat.”
Who is Damar Hamlin?
Hamlin is a second-year player who came to the Bills as a sixth-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft out of Pittsburgh.
This season, he became the starter at free safety after Micah Hyde suffered a season-ending neck injury in Week 2. Hamlin has been learning on the job but was playing well given the difficult circumstances.
As a young man, he saw the worst things in life as he lost three of his close friends to bullets, senseless deaths that the police never solved. And in his own home, his father, Mario – trying to make ends meet for his wife Nina and Damar – turned to selling drugs.
Hamlin rose above it all in high school, enjoyed a tremendous football career and earned a scholarship to Pitt, his hometown team.
His progression to the NFL was a true feel-good story given his early life circumstances.
“Some of the stories you hear from these guys, you’re like, ‘Man, that’s tough; what a tough hand this player, this person has been dealt,’” Bills general manager Brandon Beane said last year. “But what an accomplishment for Damar to avoid things. He knows people that have died or whatever but at the end of the day he’s about football, he’s a good person, and he’s going to be a good pro.”
When he first entered the NFL, Hamlin knew that he wanted to start his own foundation as a way to give back to his community, and he formed the Chasing M’s Foundation.
A GoFundMe fundraiser for the organization Hamlin started two years ago was getting renewed attention Monday night, with donations nearing $1 million.
As much of a college football fan as I am, watching a Purdue player get carted off on a backboard in yesterday’s bowl game with LSU and then this makes me sick. If football is going to continue, we have to d a much better job of protecting layer health.
I hope he recovers.Report
Heart Attack is weird for someone of his obvious health and lifestyle. I see no explanation for it online so presumably we’re still gathering information.Report
Cardiac arrest isn’t always, medically, a heart attack per se. I think this is a case where the media’s ignorance, avoidance of nuanced discussion, and general antipathy to science are not serving them well.Report
The (wild, as yet unconfirmed) speculation is that it was something called commotio cordis. As I understand it this can happen if a person takes a hit in just the right part of the chest at just the right 5th of a second to interrupt the heart’s natural rhythm. There have been instances that I have heard of in lacrosse, where a player is hit with a freak flick of the ball. I know a lot of youth leagues are starting to adopt small breast plates to prevent it.Report
There’ve been a lot of explanations, it’s commotio cordis.Report