Nearly two years after a cardiac arrest on the field that almost killed him, Damar Hamlin's "inspiring story continues." CBS Sports reports that on Sunday, the 26-year-old fourth-year safety for the Buffalo Bills will make his first start for the team, against the Arizona Cardinals, since that near-death experience on Jan. 2, 2023, when the Bills were playing the Cincinnati Bengals during a Monday Night Football game. After spending two days in a medically induced coma, Hamlin launched a recovery deemed "remarkable" by his doctors and was cleared to play football just four months after his medical incident, though he took to the field in just five games last season.
Earning starter status wasn't in the bag for Hamlin this season, as the Bills had recently added two other players to its safety roster: Mike Edwards and Cole Bishop. Those two, however, haven't had a lot of playing time due to injuries, and Bills coach Sean McDermott "credited Hamlin for showing consistency and building an on-field rapport" with fellow safety Taylor Rapp, per the AP. Hamlin tells ESPN that he was given the space to get better by his team, and that "last season was primarily just about healing and making myself do the hard stuff, thrusting myself into things that were uncomfortable, that made me fearful or gave me anxiety."
On Wednesday, McDermott lavished praise on his young safety. "What else can't this young man do?" he said. "It's one thing to come back off of [a torn] ACL or a broken bone. It's another thing to come back off of what he came back off of ... I don't think I need to say anything more. I mean, it's incredible." Hamlin, for his part, calls his return to the starting lineup "truly a blessing," adding, "It all goes to the power of being process-oriented and taking things one day at a time and accepting where you are each step in the process. It truly allows you to conquer anything that you're facing." (More Damar Hamlin stories.)
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