Damar Hamlin participated in an on-field workout with the Buffalo Bills’ team on Tuesday after he underwent lifesaving care as a result of cardiac arrest during an N.F.L. game in January.
Hamlin is a safety and was easily identifiable on the field due to his pink tie-dyed beanie with a Bills logo, which he wore instead of a helmet because he is not yet tackling teammates during summertime workouts.
Although it was only his second on-field workout since his ordeal, Hamlin walked with his teammates up and down the field. He participated in several drills, at one point even catching a leaping pass in the end zone.
This near normalcy of Hamlin’s appearance in the workout is a sharp contrast to the traumatic event in January. During that game, trainers and physicians performed CPR on him for nine minutes while his teammates looked on, distraught and praying. Eventually, he was resuscitated, before being taken off the field in an ambulance.
Since being released from the hospital, Hamlin has accrued various public relations opportunities. He honored the Bills training and medical staff, made appearances at various events, and spoke before Congress in support of a bill that would finance access to automated external defibrillators in schools, if it passed.
The Bills have since posted a video of their players and staff members receiving CPR and defibrillator training ahead of Hamlin’s return to the field. The team’s contact drills are scheduled to begin soon, and Hamlin has been “fully cleared” for football activities, according to General Manager Brandon Beane.
While Hamlin has been declared healthy enough to resume playing, there is still some psychological resistance that players can experience as they return to the violent collisions that are part of the game, according to other Bills players. For example, Micah Hyde, a fellow defensive player, admits that there was initially a mental block involved when he returned to the field after a serious neck injury.
Overcoming such a psychological block involves a great deal of mental preparation, according to Hyde.
Hamlin and the Bills organization seem to be cautiously optimistic regarding his return to the game, but only time will tell whether he is truly ready to resume playing after such a traumatic event.
