Living On a Prayer: The Nation’s Uplifting of Damar Hamlin & Damar Hamlin’s Uplifting of a Nation.
If you didn’t watch the Monday night game between the Bills and the Bengals on January 2nd, you heard about it. Bills’ safety, Damar Hamlin, is involved in what seems like a routine tackle in the first quarter, gets up for a moment but collapses. Onlookers describe the aftermath as an escalation of dread, watching as trainers and medical staff worked to assess the condition, perform CPR and other resuscitating measures before transporting a seemingly lifeless Hamlin from the field and canceling the game.
The big one at age 24.
Teammates, fans, and supporters were overcome with fear. Joe Buck, the ESPN broadcaster for the game that night called the circumstances a “nightmare”, saying it’s “nothing anyone is ever prepared for. You have all that hype and buildup, and everyone can’t wait to watch this matchup, and in the snap of a finger it’s completely different. Football just goes out the window.”
Without knowing the injury, people speculated and when the injury earned the name of cardiac arrest, people panicked. Some 350,000 cases occur each year outside of a hospital and the survival rate is less than 12 percent.
Nobody knew how this would go for Damar. Even medical experts working tirelessly to save his life couldn’t speculate in those early hours and that’s when we noticed a noteworthy difference in the firestorm of support surrounding Damar. “Thoughts and prayers” had turned simply to prayers. This was real and people were praying. In a world where prayer has become more of an admission than an act of its intended kindness, people found their way back to the greatest of basics in Damar’s greatest time of need.
In a live conference on the days following Damar’s collapse, Buffalo Bills’ Head Coach Sean McDermott discussed updates, giving thanks to the fast-acting medical personnel, and specifically giving “glory to God for keeping Damar and his family in the palm of his hand over the past couple of days and his healing powers”.
Nobody was concerned about the political correctness of it or an unintended whiplash of cultural exclusion factors. Nobody involved was cringy, shy, or worried about optics. They simply spoke from the heart about Damar in his time of need. Then they put their hands together and prayed.
ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky was moved to prayer on Tuesday during an episode of NFL Live, saying “Maybe this is not the right thing to do but it’s just on my heart that I want to pray for Damar Hamlin right now.” And that’s what he did. He bowed his head, along with his two cohosts, and spoke to God from his heart.
“God we come to you in these moments that we don’t understand, that are hard, because we believe that You’re God and coming to You and praying to You has impact. We’re sad, we’re angry, we want answers, but some things are unanswerable. We just want to pray, truly come to You and pray for strength for Damar, for healing for Damar, for comfort for Damar, to be with his family, to give them peace. If we didn’t believe that prayer … worked, we wouldn’t ask this of You, God. I believe in prayer, we believe in prayer, and we lift up Damar Hamlin’s name in Your name, Amen.”
Watch the powerful moment here:
Prayer Into Action
What I find enlightening about prayer is this: the heart can be moved to do more. As people prayed for Damar and learned more about his story, people realized they were praying for the heart of a lion. Raised in Rocks, Pensylvania where his mom ran a daycare, Damar played football for Central Catholic High School and eventually the University of Pittsburgh. As a team captain and a senior in college just months away from his NFL dreams, Damar was moved to give back to his hometown in some way. In December of 2020, he organized The Chasing M’s Foundation complete with a community toy drive and GoFundMe page to help impact children hit hardest by the COVID pandemic.
In His Own Words:
“As I embark on my journey to the NFL, I will never forget where I come from and I am committed to using my platform to positively impact the community that raised me. I created The Chasing M's Foundation as a vehicle that will allow me to deliver that impact, and the first program is the 2020 Community Toy Drive.
This campaign gives you the opportunity to contribute to our first initiative and positively impact children who have been hardest hit by the pandemic. 100% of the funds raised will go toward the purchase of toys for kids in need.
If you are not able to contribute monetarily, you can support this initiative in other ways. We are accepting donated toys at the Daycare Center or simply spread the word by sharing this fundraiser on your social channels.
Thank you so much for supporting me on and off the field. I am grateful to have the opportunity to work with you to help make the holiday season a little brighter for the kids in our community.
Damar Hamlin
The Chasing M's Foundation”
When people learned about the man behind the heart, support for Damar’s fundraiser went through the roof. I’ve refreshed the page a handfull of times but gave up as the fundraiser rose to $8,807,800. Yeah, this feels like a God moment.
Did We Win?
"I want to give back an ounce of the love y'all showed me.”
Just days out of his life altering ordeal, Damar finds ways to give back and comes up with a variety of t-shirts depicting his first thought after waking from a medically induced coma: Did We Win? Proceeds from the shirts will go to first responders and the UC Trauma Center.
What I love is that Damar isn’t shy about his love for others in what could easily be the darkest or scariest circumstances of his life. The shirts feature Hamlin's hands forming a heart near the phrase "Did We Win?"
A True Rally
According to a trauma surgeon on Hamlin’s care team, the standard recovery path following a life-threatening event like the one Damar experienced takes weeks to months yet less than a week later, fans and supporters celebrated his first public statement.
“When you put real love out into the world it comes back to you 3x’s as much..,” Hamlin wrote. “The Love has been overwhelming, but I’m thankful for every single person that prayed for me and reached out.” He continued: “We brung the world back together behind this,” he continued. “If you know me you know this only gone make me stronger. On a long road keep praying for me!”
Humanity and Hope
We’ve seen some incredible examples of hope and humanity since that fateful game. The entire Bills franchise as well as the football community at large been wearing apparel to show support for Damar, including Tee Higgins who was on the other end of the collision with Hamlin.
Higgins has since gone on to say that Damar’s mother, Nina, had been in touch with him and offered prayers in support of the events that saw her son collapse on the field due to cardiac arrest.
Damar’s mom, Nina, enjoying a pregame selfie with her son.
In their first game following Damar’s injury, Bills wide receiver John Brown gives his touchdown ball to the athletic trainer who administered CPR to Damar.
Those with faith believe that God doesn’t cause pain, but always brings us through it, which seems to be the case in Damar’s unexpected journey that is bringing hope to others.
In an often-divided world that is often filled with fear, Damar Hamlin’s scariest moment has cultivated unity and reminds us as a nation the profound value of hope. I can’t quote bible passages as easily as movies scenes or songs from the 90’s, but what I do know this: As I travel my own road full of twists, unexpected bumps and uncertainty, prayer offers comfort and hope.
