Last night saw an incident that was absolutely scary and heartbreaking to witness. During the Monday Night Football match-up between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals, young Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field and went into cardiac arrest.
This came after delivering a tackle, which sources said felt very routine and nothing out of the ordinary. Following the play, Hamlin immediately got up on his feet only to completely collapse to the ground a split second later. As trainers and paramedic raced onto to the field less than ten seconds after it happened, they gave the kid everything they could possible give him at the moment before getting him to the hospital. CPR, defibrillation, oxygen and a IV. After that, Hamlin was taken to University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center at around 9:25 EST. He’s been reported to be in critical condition and was intubated. The game was suspended immediately after this incident occurred but was only postponed by the league about a full hour after he had collapsed.
As much as I want to take this time to go on about how poor the NFL is when it comes to taking care of their own players and of the health and safety of them, I want to talk about something else. While, yes, NFL deserves to be called out by fans and press everywhere of how it should not have took them this long to call the game, I want to put the spotlight on strictly Damar Hamlin itself. Because, no matter what happens now or how he is able to get through this process, I think there remains a good chance he had played his last ever NFL game.
Damar Hamlin is just 24 years old. He’s only played in his second season in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills after playing five seasons of college football with the Pittsburgh Panthers. He’s played a part of two very good Bills teams thus far, a core group that has potential to be Super Bowl favorites. He is also a very well respected individual off of the field, with him starting his own GoFundMe in 2020. That charity was an organization designed to organize annual Christmas toy drives in his hometown of McKees Rocks. With being a core piece to a potential elite Bills squad for years to come along with the great work he has done off the field to those who need it most, the kid seemed like he had a great, bright career ahead of him. That was until what happened last night.
As a sport fan from Missouri myself, this awful situation feels too similar to what happened to former St. Louis Blues defenseman, Jay Bouwmeester. For those who don’t know, Bouwmeester was a hockey veteran when he came to the St. Louis Blues. He was loved by fans, players, and coaches and he helped play a role in helping the Blues win their first ever Stanley Cup in 2019. However, his career came to a depressing end after collapsing on the bench and going into cardiac arrest in a game against the Anaheim Ducks on February 11, 2020. It was an incredibly scary situation to witness on tv and one that I do not wish on anyone, not even my worst enemy. While Bouwmeester was thankfully able to survive all of that, he would never play another professional hockey game again as he would miss the rest of that season and announce his retirement nearly a full year after going into cardiac arrest. All of this sounds too similar to what has just happened to Damar Hamlin.
Now, I don’t want to get into the question right now of if he should play another football game or not. What matters now is that Damar is able to make through this process and make a recovery in some form. However, this just shows the scenario of how quickly one’s career in sports could end just like that. It’s bad enough when it happens to a respected sports veteran but when it happens to a young kid who has the potential to be a breakout-star, that is just as soul crushing.
Sport athletes are never guarantee safety in the sport they play no matter how hard they try to avoid injuries. Whether the harm comes from the other team or a situation like this where the person themselves collapses on the field, a career in sports can end just as quickly as it can begin. A life-changing injury can come at you fast and ruined the one great you have worked your entire life to accomplish. That’s why we should always feel grateful to those players that are able to overcome injuries to continue playing until they decide they are done and feel nothing but sorrow whenever players’ careers end because they just couldn’t get past it. As much as sports is suppose to be entertainment, it should never come at the expense of the life of a single player no matter what game they are playing.
Right now, I just want to take this time to say that I wish nothing but the fastest recovery imaginable for Damar Hamlin and his family. I can’t imagine how scared and worried they are right now after witnessing such a scary event. No matter what happens for the rest of Hamlin’s playin career, I really hope this will all lead to some sort of light at the end of a tunnel. I just hope he is able to carry on to be the respectable individual he has made himself to be and be an inspiration of others to power through after a life-changing experience. We can only hope and pray now but hopefully, God is on Damar’s side.
Other comments:
- Between this and what happened with actor Jeremy Renner this weekend, we really need to learn not to take any famous person for granted and remember these are real human beings. No one is invisible or is guarnteed safety.
- It has been reported that after the in-game collapse, the GoFundMe campaign for his 2020 toy drive, which had an initial goal of $2,500, had received a massive influx of donors, which now has raised over $3 million in donations. That is absolutely incredible! It really shows how great the world can be when we all come together to try to make a significant difference. Massive respect to anyone that donated!
- Here’ an announcement directly from Damar Hamlin’s family that just got released:
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