Orchard Park, New York –
Wearing a red cap and Buffalo Bills pullover, safety Dumar Hamlin sat on the podium and declared he was ready to resume football.
“This event was life-changing, but it’s not the end of my story,” Hamlin said at a press conference at the team’s facility on Tuesday after suffering a cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated on the field. A game in Cincinnati four months ago.
“My heart is still in the game,” Hamlin said.
Hamlin spoke just hours after general manager Brandon Beane announced that Hamlin had been cleared to play and was participating in the team’s voluntary training program. This is the latest and biggest step in the 25-year-old’s amazing recovery.
“He’s completely cleared. He’s here and he’s got a mindset. He’s back and he’s in a great headspace to come back,” Biehn told reporters.
Bean said the clearance came after Hamlin met with his third and final specialist on Friday, and all three agreed that Hamlin could resume play without fear of setbacks or complications. Having the head athletic trainer present at the meeting with the experts, Beane said the team is following the experts’ instructions.
“He’s such a great kid and has such a great family. It’s exciting to go from a man who was fighting for his life to now,” Bean said. No, now it’s about his comeback.”
Hamlin’s teammates were overjoyed to see him working out back at the facility.
“D-Ham is a special person and a beautiful soul,” said fellow Safety member Myka Hyde. “I admire him, especially how he bounced back after facing adversity. I’m feeling better.”
Hamlin’s recovery is personal to many who watched Hamlin collapse on the field in shock at the nationally televised “Monday Night Football” game, but it’s even more so for Bean. While the Bills went home after the game was initially suspended and eventually cancelled, Bean first played by Hamlin’s side, including when he woke up from a medically induced coma at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. I spent 4 days in
“It’s all about his health and always about his health,” Bean said. “But actually, after so many months, it’s pretty amazing that he’s talking about being completely acquitted. I am very much looking forward to seeing where the journey is headed.”
Hamlin went down after what appeared to be a regular tackle in the first quarter of the Jan. 2 game against the Bengals. His collapse prompted a flood of support from the NFL and across North America, with Hamlin’s charitable donations surpassing his $9 million.
The second-year player, from the Pittsburgh suburb of McKee’s Rock, spent nearly 10 days recovering in hospitals in Cincinnati and Buffalo before being released. He eventually began visiting the Bills’ facility, attending the team’s season-ending loss to Cincinnati 27–10 in the divisional rounds of the playoffs.
Hamlin has made numerous appearances around the country since then, including a meeting with President Joe Biden last month.
Biden posted the following tweet about the visit: Moreover, he put recovery into his actions – and our country is better off for it. ”
The White House said in a statement that Hamlin’s efforts during his recovery had helped “make life-saving technology more widely available.” visited and spoke with Hamlin’s parents on the phone while Hamlin was in the hospital.
Hamlin’s visit to Washington came as part of the player’s desire to support legislation that would increase access to defibrillators in public and private primary and secondary schools.
At the Super Bowl Celebration in Arizona in February, he received the NFLPA’s Alan Page Community Award. He also attended a pregame ceremony in which the NFL honors the Bills’ and Bengals’ training and medical staff, as well as the first responders who treated him.
