Damar Hamlin will start at safety for the Buffalo Bills on Sunday when they take on the Arizona Cardinals. It will be his first start since suffering a cardiac arrest during a game on Jan. 2, 2023.
Bills head coach Sean McDermott made the announcement on Wednesday.
“What else can’t this young man do?” McDermott said. “He’s been through what he’s been through on the field, you’ve written about it over and over again, and to come back from that — it’s one thing to come back from an ACL or a broken bone.
“It’s a whole different story to come back from what he came back from. Let alone to decide to play football, and contact football, in full pads at the NFL level — I don’t think I need to say more. It’s unbelievable.”
Hamlin endured a lengthy recovery process, playing five games as a reserve for the Bills last season. The 26-year-old Pitt alum started 13 games in 2022 prior to the emergency on-field declaration against the Cincinnati Bengals.
McDermott noted that Hamlin has earned this opportunity to start Week 1 thanks to the work he put in during training camp.
“I think it’s consistency and opportunity,” McDermott added. “Whenever an opportunity came, he took it and was consistent. [He] a certain level of understanding built up with [Taylor Rapp]and that is also important in the security position.”
Since January 2, 2023, we have been making a difference off the field
Hamlin’s near-death experience inspired him to help others. His charity, the Chasing M’s Foundation, offered free CPR training during a summer 2023 tour and donated automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to youth sports organizations. The Bills safety has also raised awareness of commotio cordis, a rare heart condition he attributes to his collapse on “Monday Night Football,” and met with President Joe Biden at the White House to support legislation calling for greater access to AEDs in schools.
When the Bills returned to Cincinnati in November for the first time since his cardiac arrest, Hamlin met the 10 medical professionals who helped him regain consciousness. Hamlin took the UC medical staff out to dinner and surprised each with a scholarship in their name.
