How do you understand something that up until Monday night seemed unfathomable? That’s what Kansas City Chiefs players are grappling with right now.
When Buffalo Bills S Damar Hamlin collapsed after what appeared to be a routine play during Monday night’s game between the Bills and Bengals, it shook the football world to its very core. Teammates and coaches stood by and watched as a member of the Bills training staff performed CPR. An ambulance took him from the field to UC Medical Center in Cincinnati, where Hamlin’s condition is improving.
Speaking to the media for the first time on Wednesday, several Chiefs players were asked about how witnessing Hamlin’s injury affected them. Patrick Mahomes was the first to provide an answer.
“I think it affects everyone in this league in a way where it really puts things in perspective,” Mahomes said. “We go out there every week and I’m not going to say we take it for granted, but you go out there and you play a game that you love, and you just enjoy it. You don’t think about things like that happening and whenever things like this happen, I think it impacts everybody. I mean, obviously, my prayers are with Damar (Hamlin) and his family, the Buffalo Bills, the Bengals (and) everybody that was in attendance at the game. It sent chills down my body when I was watching it and all I did was just sit there and pray for him because that’s all you can do when you feel like you can’t help.”
Juan Thornhill, who plays the same position as Hamlin, felt it could just as easily be him or another one of his football brethren in that position.
“It’s really scary,” Thornhill said. “Seeing things like that happen on the football field, knowing that we play the same exact sport as him – I mean it’s a contact sport. It’s scary because it can affect us. It can be us that’s in this same exact situation, so all I can do right now is just pray for Damar (Hamlin) and hope that he gets better and hope that it doesn’t happen anymore this season.”
Marquez Valdes-Scantling took Hamlin’s injury particularly hard — feeling that people take for granted how often players put their well-being on the line.
“Obviously, we all play this game and we put our lives on the line and to see one of our football brothers – in this fraternity of football – go down like that and (almost) lose his life, it’s hard,” Valdes-Scantling said. “We put our lives on the line every single play and a lot of people take that for granted. It’s tough to see (and) it’s tough to sleep at night because that could’ve been any one of us. It could’ve been myself (or) any one of those guys in the locker room and I think every football player around the country felt that.”
There has been an outpouring of support and prayer for Hamlin from across the league. The Chiefs held a prayer with their team chaplain on Tuesday and lit up Arrowhead Stadium with Bills blue and Hamlin’s No. 3 jersey number on Wednesday. Teams and players are doing what they can from afar as they prepare as best they can for Week 18 with continued prayer for Hamlin’s swift recovery and well-being.
“Like I said, I’ve been watching updates just like everybody and try to make sure that first off Damar is healthy, and he can get back,” Mahomes said. “Because at the end of the day, we’re people, not just players, and I think everybody understands that even more now.”
