Buffalo Bills players react after teammate Damar Hamlin #3 was injured against the Cincinnati Bengals. Source: AFP NFL Network reported Hamlin was talking to his teammates via FaceTime, first individually and then as a group.
Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest during Monday night’s game against the Bengals, collapsing on the field after making a tackle on Cincinnati wide receiver Tee Higgins. He was administered CPR and resuscitated before being transported by ambulance to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
After two days of vague updates, it was announced on Thursday that Hamlin woke up. His first communication, in writing, was to ask if the Bills won the game. The doctors told him that he won the game of life.
In a Thursday press conference, Bills quarterback Josh Allen told reporters that Hamlin and his father, Mario, want the team to “charge forward.”“Mario [was] talking to the team, and the things he told to us — he demanded us — you can’t not honor his request to go out there and charge forward to the best of our abilities,” Allen said. “Obviously we’ll be playing with less heavy hearts now. Today’s news brought us tears of joy. But to know that that’s what he wants, that’s what his dad wants, I think guys are excited to get out there.”
The game between the Bengals and Bills, which carried heavy implications for the top seed in the AFC, was called off and will not be resumed. Instead, the league is voting Friday whether to adopt a neutral site for the AFC championship game under various circumstances where the outcome of the canceled game would have swung the seedings.The Bills host the Patriots on Sunday afternoon.
NFL analyst stuns fans in live TV moment | 01:10
HAMLIN’S ‘AMAZING’ FACETIME CALL
Bills players didn’t know ahead of time that Hamlin would join a team meeting via Zoom on Friday.
But when head coach Sean McDermott told the team that he had a “treat in store,” he could see the look on their faces in “anticipation of what was probably coming.”
When Hamlin appeared on the screen, players stood up and started clapping. They yelled, too. Hamlin made hand signals and gestures — like a heart symbol — and flexed both biceps for his teammates. And somewhere in the middle of that, McDermott said during a press conference Friday, Hamlin told his teammates, “I love you boys.”
“Probably won’t be able to do it justice, honestly, with the words,” McDermott said when asked about hearing Hamlin’s voice after the 24-year-old safety suffered cardiac arrest and collapsed on the field during Monday’s game. “Amazing. Touching.”
Assistant athletic trainer Tabani Richards, who is in Cincinnati with Hamlin, and director of team administration, Matt Worswick, helped coordinate the Zoom call, McDermott said. They put Hamlin on the big screen in their meeting room so he was “larger than life in there for us.” In addition to the heart symbol and “flexing on them,” Hamlin also gave Bills players a thumbs up.
Hamlin remains in intensive care | 01:16
It is the latest in a heartwarming string of positive developments for Hamlin. The Bills announced that Hamlin’s breathing tube was removed overnight. He gradually awoke from a medically induced sedation Wednesday night and communicated in writing — first asking who won the game between Cincinnati and Buffalo. His father, Mario, spoke to the Bills spoke to the Bills on Wednesday.
But actually seeing Hamlin’s face on the screen “with my own eyes” was something McDermott had looked forward to and needed, he said. Then, he saw the reaction that unfolded across the room throughout the brief call.
“It was a pretty cool exchange for a few seconds there,” McDermott said.
Hamlin collapsed on the field against the Bengals on Monday night after tackling receiver Tee Higgins. The second-year player had CPR administered on the field before being transported to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
The Bills play the Patriots on Sunday in their season finale.
This story originally appeared on New York Post.
