PITTSBURGH — As in all facets of life, the National Football League is no stranger to heartache. Tragedies occur in the work force, whether involving drug addiction, senseless violence or just untimely, unfortunate accidents. Very rarely they occur at the workplace.
Typically, these tragedies occur away from our gaze. They might happen when we are sleeping. They might happen when we are working. They can happen at any point when we are not paying attention. They do not occur under the watchful eye of a sporting nation. We do not witness them live on television, in high definition, in prime time.
In the past year alone, the NFL had three active players lose their lives. Steelers quarterback Dwayne Haskins, who was 24 when he was killed crossing an interstate in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was among them. Others were Arizona Cardinals cornerback Jeff Gladney, 25, who died in a car accident; and Baltimore Ravens linebacker Jaylon Ferguson, 26, who was found unresponsive at his home.
Tragic and sad as they are, none of those deaths numbed, horrified and unnerved the nation like what happened on Monday night in Cincinnati when Buffalo Bills cornerback Damar Hamlin, a McKees Rocks native who played at Pitt, collapsed on the field and had to be resuscitated back to life during a game against the Bengals. That's because it was right before our very eyes, caught on camera, even replayed twice before anyone realized the severity of what had just transpired.
Anyone who watches a football game is not always alarmed when a player gets up to his feet, as Hamlin did after making a tackle on Bengals receiver Tee Higgins, and falls back to the turf a second or so later. Unfortunately, that image has been ingrained in our consciousness after watching a player like Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustain a severe concussion earlier this season.
None of us, though, is accustomed to seeing what we saw unfold before our very eyes — players in agony, tears in their eyes, openly weeping on a football field. Quarterback Josh Allen had his hands cupped over his nose and mouth, his eyes frozen open, not believing what he was seeing. That's when you knew something was terribly wrong with Hamlin, 24, a second-year safety who played at Central Catholic High School. It was one of those moments in life that stops the world.
The concept of watching a football player die on the field is foreign to anyone who never knew of Chuck Hughes, a Detroit Lions wide receiver who collapsed in a 1971 game against the Chicago Bears and died several hours later in a hospital. Unlike with what happened with Hamlin, that game wasn't on national television. An entire nation did not watch as he was trying to be resuscitated on the field.
Hughes was 28. Thankfully, he remains the only NFL player to ever die on the field.
The impact of what everyone witnessed Monday night in Cincinnati, or heard about shortly after the game was canceled, cannot fully be quantified. It went beyond the pleas for prayers, which stretched beyond the boundaries of the NFL. Within hours, a toy drive that Hamlin had set up in December 2020, to raise money for a day-care center in his hometown began receiving funds from across the nation — on average, 2.2 donations per second through a GoFundMe page in the first 24 hours. The drive that had a stated goal of just $2,500 has now surpassed $7 million. Some of the donations were more than $5,000, many from players around the league.
Hamlin remains at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, but he has had his breathing tube removed and "continues to progress remarkably," according to the physicians in charge of his care. His neurological functions remain intact and he has been able to talk to his family and teammates, surprising the Bills with a FaceTime video to tell them, "Love you boys."
Meantime, the NFL has come up with a number of different scenarios to account for the cancellation of the Bills-Bengals game that will result in those teams playing one fewer game than the rest of the league. It includes playing the AFC championship game at a neutral site if it would involve teams — most likely the Bills, Bengals and Kansas City Chiefs — whose seeding was affected by the cancellation.
None of the Bills players would care. They would be heart-warmed merely knowing Damar Hamlin is able to watch them.
