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Buffalo Payments security Damar Hamlin nonetheless is in essential situation after the 24-year-old suffered a cardiac arrest and collapsed on the sector throughout Monday night time’s sport in Cincinnati, his crew mentioned Tuesday, a surprising second that left gamers weeping, praying and embracing as their teammate was taken away by ambulance.
“Damar Hamlin spent final night time within the intensive care unit and stays there at this time in essential situation on the College of Cincinnati Medical Heart,” the Payments mentioned Tuesday afternoon.
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Hamlin fell on his again within the first quarter simply moments after getting up from an open area deal with of Cincinnati Bengals huge receiver Tee Higgins. “His heartbeat was restored on the sector” and he was transferred to the medical middle “for additional testing and remedy,” the Payments tweeted early Tuesday.
It stays unclear what precipitated the cardiac arrest.
Hamlin’s collapse left gamers distraught – in tears, kneeling with arms round each other earlier than returning to their locker rooms – and known as to thoughts a few of the league’s most annoying in-game accidents. The sport was suspended with almost 6 minutes left within the first quarter and later was formally postponed – an uncommon transfer for a league that always resumes play even after extreme accidents.
The late-season sport – initially anticipated as a match that may assist settle playoff seeds for 2 AFC stalwarts – is not going to be resumed this week, and no determination has been made about whether or not it should ever be resumed, the NFL mentioned Tuesday afternoon.
Inside 10 seconds of Hamlin’s collapse, Payments crew trainers have been treating him. An ambulance was on the sector in lower than 5 minutes, footage exhibits, and he was given CPR earlier than being taken to the hospital, in response to an ESPN broadcast.
Since then, help for Hamlin – a Pennsylvania native who had performed each sport this season – has poured in from followers and others in professional sports activities, from the NFL’s Russell Wilson and JJ Watt to NBA star LeBron James. A Christmas toy fundraiser Hamlin began in 2020 swiftly raised greater than $4 million.
Hamlin was intubated, and his mom, who was on the sport, had ridden within the ambulance with him, mentioned Jordon Rooney, a buddy and advertising and marketing consultant of the participant.
“He’s a fighter on a regular basis. … If there’s anybody that, you realize, I’ve confidence in making it out of something, it’s him,” Rooney, who flew from Dallas to Cincinnati after Hamlin’s collapse to be with him, instructed CNN on Tuesday. “He’s somebody who at all times figures out a option to come out on prime.”
Hamlin’s household expressed “our honest gratitude for the love and help proven to Damar throughout this difficult time” in a assertion launched by Rooney late Tuesday morning.
The assertion thanked the Payments, the Bengals, followers and medical personnel.
Hamlin’s collapse comes because the NFL stays beneath intense scrutiny over the way it protects contributors in an inherently violent sport. Adjustments over the previous decade embody pregame medical assessments of gamers, plus on-field and postgame assessments of these concerned in laborious hits, the league has mentioned. NFL protocols relating to concussions – accidents tied to mind illness later in life – have earned criticism this season after a quarterback suffered a tough hit in a sport simply 4 days after hitting his head on the turf in a sport.
The beautiful play involving Hamlin occurred round 8:55 p.m. ET, early in what initially was thought to be an essential matchup between two AFC stalwarts – the Payments at 12-3 and the Bengals at 11-4 – attempting to remain in rivalry for prime convention seeding within the approaching NFL playoffs.
With the Bengals up 7-3, Higgins caught a brief move in Bengals territory and ran a number of yards close to midfield, the place Hamlin met him.
Higgins lowered his proper shoulder and drove into the chest of Hamlin, whose arms have been out huge anticipating a deal with. Hamlin, now falling again, wrapped his arms round Higgins’ shoulders and neck and twisted Higgins to the bottom with him.
Hamlin stood up and appeared to regulate his face masks, then shortly afterward fell backward. A referee whistled for the clock to cease with 5:58 left within the quarter, and Payments employees rushed to the immobile participant.
Quickly, three teammates took their helmets off and knelt as Hamlin remained immobile. Minutes later, after two ESPN business breaks, most gamers for each groups have been on the sector trying on with concern, together with Payments huge receiver Stefon Diggs, proven with a tear-streaked face.
Payments gamers and employees ultimately gathered in a circle, kneeling on the sector in prayer as an ambulance drove off the sector with Hamlin.
“After Hamlin was taken away by ambulance … some gamers simply sat staring out on the area; different gamers have been hugging one another. Different guys have been overtly weeping,” ESPN’s Lisa Salters mentioned within the stay broadcast.
By 9:16 p.m., after the groups’ head coaches talked to one another on the sector surrounded by sport officers, Payments coach Sean McDermott motioned for his crew to get again to their locker room, and the group was instructed the sport can be briefly suspended. The group cheered as gamers retreated to the tunnel.
A few of Hamlin’s teammates determined to remain in Cincinnati whereas the remainder of the crew travels again Tuesday morning to Buffalo, NFL Govt Vice President of Operations Troy Vincent, who performed within the league for over a decade, mentioned in a press name. Diggs, the Payments receiver, arrived on the hospital the place Hamlin was being handled late Monday night time, ESPN’s broadcast confirmed.
Cardiac arrest outcomes from electrical disturbances that trigger the center to all of the sudden cease beating correctly, and dying might be fast if assist isn’t rendered instantly. It isn’t the identical as a coronary heart assault or coronary heart failure.
The league introduced after 10 p.m. ET that the sport was postponed.
After his collapse Monday, neither of the groups’ coaches or gamers requested to proceed taking part in, Vincent mentioned. The NFL and the NFL Gamers Affiliation agreed to postpone the sport, the NFL mentioned.
“I’ve by no means seen something prefer it since I’ve been taking part in,” he mentioned. “So, instantly, my participant hat went on. How do you resume play after you’ve seen such a traumatic occasion happen in entrance of you in actual time?”
The NFL rightly determined to postpone as a result of the gamers “weren’t within the frame of mind to have the ability to end that sport,” Indianapolis Colts security Rodney McLeod Jr. instructed “CNN This Morning” on Tuesday.
Gamers are used to experiencing accidents within the NFL, however Monday was totally different, he mentioned.
“In my 11 years within the NFL I’ve by no means skilled something like that. And that brings the fact of the game to life,” McLeod mentioned. “We’re speaking a few man who collapsed, who laid breathless, who sadly is preventing for his life.”
The NFL has seen devastating in-game accidents earlier than, together with non permanent or everlasting paralysis of gamers together with Darryl Stingley (1978), Mike Utley (1991), Dennis Byrd (1992) and Ryan Shazier (2017).
CPR beforehand had been carried out on gamers throughout NFL video games not less than twice, together with one incident during which the participant died.
In 1971, Detroit Lions receiver Chuck Hughes, 28, collapsed close to the tip of a house sport in opposition to the Chicago Bears, and CPR was carried out on the sector, in response to the Detroit Free Press. The sport’s final 62 seconds have been performed. Hughes was taken to a hospital, and gamers realized of his dying after the sport, the stories mentioned.
In December 1997, Lions linebacker Reggie Brown stopped respiration after struggling a critical spinal wire damage whereas making a deal with in a house sport in opposition to the New York Jets, The Detroit Information reported. After CPR was begun, he was taken to a hospital, and although gamers have been shaken, the sport resumed. Brown ultimately would regain mobility after surgical procedure and rehabilitation, however the damage ended his soccer profession.
Monday’s Payments-Bengals sport was to be their second-to-last of the common season. The postponement throws into query how the groups’ common seasons will finish and the way that may have an effect on playoff seeding.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, “after talking with each groups and the NFLPA management,” instructed the golf equipment that the Payments-Bengals sport “is not going to be resumed this week,” the league mentioned Tuesday.
“The NFL has made no determination relating to the potential resumption of the sport at a later date,” the league mentioned.
This coming weekend’s schedule – which was to be the ultimate slate of regular-season video games for all groups – has not modified, the NFL mentioned Tuesday.
Meaning on Sunday, the Payments are scheduled to host the New England Patriots, and the Bengals are set to host the Baltimore Ravens. However in contrast to different groups, which shall be taking part in their seventeenth contest, the Payments and Bengals can be taking part in their sixteenth full sport.
The Payments and Bengals are vying with the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs (13-3) for the AFC’s prime playoff seed, which might imply a first-round bye and home-field benefit all through the convention playoffs.
Hamlin joined the Payments in 2021 as a sixth-round draft decide after taking part in for the College of Pittsburgh within the 2016-20 seasons. He was redshirted – sitting out on video games whereas nonetheless on the crew – in 2016 as a result of damage, his Pittsburgh Panthers participant bio states. He additionally missed time as a result of accidents in 2017 and 2019, the NFL web site added.
Overwhelming help for him flooded in Monday night time from followers and gamers throughout the sports activities world. The NFL Gamers Affiliation tweeted Monday night time that the group and “everybody in our group is praying for Damar Hamlin.”
“We now have been in contact with Payments and Bengals gamers, and with the NFL. The one factor that issues at this second is Damar’s well being and properly being,” the gamers affiliation mentioned.
NBA star James applauded the choice to postpone the sport after the medical emergency.
“It’s positively the best name,” he mentioned after the Los Angeles Lakers sport in opposition to the Charlotte Hornets Monday night time, including, “The security of gamers in all sports activities is at all times crucial. It was a horrible factor to see.”
“My ideas and tremendous prayers go as much as the skies above for that child’s household, for him, for that brotherhood of the NFL, and all people who’s part of the NFL household,” James mentioned.
Properly needs and prayers have been despatched by a number of star athletes, together with Denver Broncos quarterback Wilson, Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields, Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, and free agent Odell Beckham Jr.
Watt, an Arizona Cardinals defensive finish, tweeted, “The sport just isn’t essential. Damar Hamlin’s life is essential. Please be okay. Please.”
Within the hours after Hamlin’s collapse, the Christmas toy drive fundraiser he began had raised greater than $4 million because it was flooded with donations from supporters rooting for his restoration.
The participant created the drive to lift cash to purchase toys for youngsters in a Philadelphia group, writing on the time, “As I embark on my journey to the NFL, I’ll always remember the place I come from and I’m dedicated to utilizing my platform to positively affect the group that raised me.”
Within the hour after Hamlin’s cardiac arrest, the fundraiser had raised about $70,000 from lower than 4,000 donations. However by Tuesday afternoon, the GoFundMe had skyrocketed to greater than $4.5 million raised from over 166,000 donations, together with one among $20,000.
Hamlin continued his annual toy drive custom this 12 months in Buffalo, signing autographs and jerseys for youngsters who stopped by.
“(It’s) one thing I’ve at all times been into, simply giving again,” he instructed CNN affiliate WKBW in December, including, “For 3 years I’ve been doing the toy drive so simply having the ability to lengthen it to Buffalo now could be simply one thing I like doing.”
