Nick Sirianni and other Eagles offer their support for Bills safety and Pittsburgh native Damar Hamlin
Hamlin, who remains in critical condition after suffering cardiac arrest, played at the University of Pittsburgh with Avonte Maddox and is also close with Miles Sanders.
Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin has received endless messages of support from across the entire sports world after he collapsed on the field Monday evening during a game against the Bengals in Cincinnati.
Hamlin remains in critical condition at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center after he went into cardiac arrest, according to the Bills. During the play in which Hamlin was stricken, Hamlin tackled Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins, got to his feet momentarily, and then crumpled to the ground.
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First responders immediately administered CPR to Hamlin on the field, while also using an automated external defibrillator. He was transported to the UC Medical Center, the city’s only adult level-one trauma center. Hamlin’s mother, Nina, rode with him and the first responders inside the ambulance. The game was suspended by the NFL, and it was later announced that the teams are not expected to resume the game this week.
The 24-year-old Hamlin has strong ties to Pennsylvania. He attended Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh, and Hamlin stayed at home for his college career at Pittsburgh, where he was teammates with Eagles cornerback Avonte Maddox. Hamlin is also extremely close with Eagles running back and fellow Pittsburgh native Miles Sanders. During the offseason, Hamlin and Sanders have hosted and supported each other’s community youth events in their hometown.
Sanders and Maddox are among a handful of Eagles who have shown their support for Hamlin across social media.
On Tuesday, the Eagles postponed their scheduled press conferences with the team’s coordinators until Thursday. The team cited the postponement with “respect to the situation in last night’s Bills-Bengals game,” and the “uncertainty of Damar Hamlin’s status.”
“It puts everything in perspective,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said Tuesday on WIP-FM. “You come back to work, you have a loss that you’re really upset about and you’re thinking about that and then something like that happens at night. It just puts everything in perspective of how these players put their bodies on the line. I know we’ve got some guys that know him and [my] first thought is obviously for the kid, that he’s OK, and then you want to check on your guys that know him.
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“Then you start to think, a lot of things go through your mind, right? And you think about Josh Sweat [who suffered a neck injury Sunday] and how fortunate he is that he was able to get up and be OK. It’s just tough to watch. My exact words were that I was kind of in shock because you don’t see that very often. You don’t see that happen in this game very often. It’s a violent sport, as we know. Just I thought about everything, how you would lead the team in that matter and everything. Just so many things go through your mind there.
“At the end of the day, I just hope and pray that Damar’s OK and that the people who are close to him are OK and that he’ll fight through this and get up from this. That, like I said, everybody that knows him and loves him can be comforted at this time.”