“My heart is still in it. My heart is still in the game. I love the game,” said Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin in a press conference today. Hamlin collapsed on Monday Night Football in early January. He suffered cardiac arrest after making a tackle and has had a long road back since then.
“This event was life changing,” he continued, “but it’s not the end of my story. So I’m here to announce that I’m planning on making a comeback to the NFL.”
Hamlin has cleared “to resume full activities” by multiple specialists and is again working out with the team, Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane said today. The Bills announced on social media that Hamlin “is working out with the team today in Buffalo.”
The return process for No. 3 was “just like anyone else who was coming back from an injury,” Beane said. “He’s in a great headspace to come back and make his return.”
Hamlin spoke about Commotio Cordis, a rare medical condition that can happen after a sudden impact to the chest, which was what doctors determined happened in his case. The condition can happen when the impact occurs at “a specific point in your heartbeat” disrupting the process and causing sudden cardiac arrest. “Five-to-seven seconds later,” he said, “you fall out.”
Commotio Cordis is the “leading cause of death in youth athletes across all sports, so that’s something definitely something that [I’ll] be personally taking a step in to make a change,” Hamlin said. He indicated he will embody that process through his comeback.
“It’s something I want to prove to myself…nobody else. I want to show people that fear is a choice…You just keep putting one foot in front of the other. I want to stand for that.”