Monday Night Football, January 2, 2023. Bills at Bengals in Cincinnati. Just under six minutes left in the first quarter, Damar Hamlin dragged down receiver Tee Higgins, stood up, and a few seconds later collapsed.
His heart had stopped. Bills assistant athletic trainer Denny Kellington started CPR in less than a minute. The staff worked on him for about nine minutes and used a defibrillator, right there on the field, in front of his teammates and everyone watching at home. He was treated on the field for more than 10 minutes before an ambulance took him to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. The game was suspended, and it was never resumed.
The first question
Doctors kept him under medically induced sedation. When he woke, he had a breathing tube in and could not talk, so he wrote. From Wednesday night, two days after the collapse, that is how he talked to the people around him. One of the first things he wanted to know was the score.
"Did we win?"
Damar Hamlin, after waking in the hospital, as reported by Sports Illustrated, January 2023
"Damar, you won. You've won the game of life"
Dr. Timothy Pritts, one of his doctors in Cincinnati, recalling what Hamlin was told, January 2023, as reported by Sports Illustrated
On January 6, the Bills said the breathing tube was out. He later confirmed what had happened to him: commotio cordis, a rare event in which a blow to the chest at exactly the wrong moment in the heartbeat stops the heart.
The toy drive
To understand what happened next, go back to 2020. Hamlin was still playing at Pitt. He set up an online toy drive through his Chasing M's Foundation, to buy toys for the kids at his mother's daycare center in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, the town outside Pittsburgh where he grew up. He set the goal at $2,500.
The next spring, the Buffalo Bills took him in the sixth round of the 2021 draft. He kept the No. 3 he had worn at Pitt.
Before that Monday night, the toy drive had raised just under $3,000. Then people found it. More than $700,000 came in within an hour of the game. In the week after his collapse it passed $8.6 million, from more than 244,000 donors.
Back on the field
Nine days after the collapse, he was discharged from Buffalo General Medical Center and went home. On April 18, 2023, Bills general manager Brandon Beane said he was fully cleared.
In August he played in all three preseason games. Then came October 1, 2023, against Miami in Orchard Park. Hamlin ran out with the kickoff return unit for the opening kick. It was his first regular-season game since Cincinnati. The kick was a touchback.
That year the NFL Players Association gave him the Alan Page Community Award, which goes to one player for giving back to his hometown and team city. The Professional Football Writers of America gave him the George Halas Award, for an NFL player, coach or staff member who overcomes adversity.
He kept playing. In 2024 he made 14 starts, a career high. Last season a pectoral injury put him on injured reserve. In March 2026 he signed a one-year deal to come back to Buffalo for a sixth season.
Three friends
He has spent the years since making sure other people get what saved him. In February 2023 he teamed up with the American Heart Association on the #3forHeart CPR Challenge: learn hands-only CPR, donate to fund CPR education, and challenge three friends to do the same. His three were LeBron James, Tom Brady and Michelle Obama.
On March 29, 2023, he went to Capitol Hill to back the Access to AEDs Act, which would help elementary and secondary schools get grant money for defibrillators and CPR programs.
"I don't recall ever thinking about CPR or knowing where an AED was in my school or on the athletic field"
Damar Hamlin, on Capitol Hill, March 29, 2023, as reported by Fox News
That November he went back to Cincinnati and had dinner with the 10 University of Cincinnati medical staff members who helped save his life. He surprised them with 10 scholarships through Chasing M's, one named for each of them, for young people in the Cincinnati area.
Second chance
He revamped Chasing M's around what happened to him. The foundation has given away nearly $1 million worth of defibrillators to schools, communities and other groups. It still funds scholarships, and it still runs a toy drive.
Teaching CPR is not easy for him. He has said it is "traumatic just to see a CPR instruction dummy on the ground," that it reminds him of the worst things of that moment. He keeps showing up anyway.
GAMECHANGER™"I knew that I was helping to save lives."
Damar Hamlin, to TIME, March 2026
Reporting draws on TIME (March 2026), the Associated Press, NPR, Sports Illustrated, CBS News, Fox News, Fox Television Stations, NBC New York, Denver7, KUTV, Black Enterprise, Buffalo Rumblings and AZFamily.
Sources (17)
TIME: Damar Hamlin is using his second chance to promote heart health · CBS News: Tee Higgins shares support for Hamlin after cardiac arrest · Fox 32 Chicago: Meet the man who performed vital CPR on Damar Hamlin · AZFamily: CPR, defibrillator used on Hamlin; play suspended · Buffalo Rumblings: Bills vs. Bengals game will not resume · Sports Illustrated: Hamlin asked who won Bills-Bengals game when he woke up · Associated Press via AOL: Hamlin discharged from Buffalo hospital, heads home 9 days after cardiac arrest · KUTV: Hamlin's family updates 2020 fundraiser after it receives millions · Denver7: Hamlin's toy drive flooded with donations after injury · NBC New York: Hamlin wins Alan Page Community Award · Black Enterprise: Hamlin named 2023 George Halas Award winner · NPR via OPB: Hamlin cleared to play four months after cardiac arrest · Associated Press via News4JAX: Hamlin set for first regular-season game since cardiac arrest · Associated Press via News4JAX: Hamlin returns to Buffalo for sixth season on one-year deal · CBS New York: Hamlin teams up with American Heart Association for #3forHeart challenge · Fox News: Hamlin touts AEDs during Capitol Hill visit · NPR: Hamlin funds 10 scholarships in the names of heroes who saved his life