On January 2, 2023, the Buffalo Bills played the Cincinnati Bengals in Cincinnati, Ohio. At the end of the first quarter wide receiver Tee Higgins caught the ball and turned up field putting his head down and came into contact with Bills safety Damar Hamlin. It looked like a normal play but shortly after Hamlin came up he lost all control and fell straight back. This scary situation ended up going on for almost an hour on just the field.

It became so long that all players were surrounding Hamlin praying for him to gain momentum. The games play by play announcer Joe Buck says, “It was a nightmare, this football game is out the window.” 

Hamlin was in cardiac arrest when an ambulance came onto the field–something that had never been seen before. It became so bad that they even had to perform CPR on Hamlin. After almost an hour, they finally got him into the ambulance and shipped off to the local hospital. About 45 minutes later, commissioner Roger Goodell finally canceled the game. Goodell said the situation was “difficult, but necessary under extraordinary circumstances.” A tragedy heard all over…

Hamlin was in the hospital for two days before people heard the first word that he had awoken. Hamlin ended up being released after a couple days and seemed to be feeling better. Players all over the league praying worked and joy struck. Hamlin was tweeting about his recovery and attended his first game after collapsing: the AFC divisional game vs the Bengals. Hamlin in his suite was cheering on his team. “Damar Hamlin made his first appearance after the injury waving to fans from his suite.” This was certainly a sight to see and everyone around the world seemed glad to see him outside of a hospital bed.