ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — It wasn't long ago when Bills safety Damar Hamlin was questioning if he would ever get to play football again.
“Sitting in that uncertainty was eating at me," Hamlin said. "It was really eating at me because football is truly my passion. It's the thing that I've always been obsessed with.”
After suffering cardiac arrest in January of 2023, Hamlin has relied on being “process-oriented” while slowly taking all the right steps to return to the football field.
“Last season was primarily just about healing and making myself do the hard stuff," Hamlin said. "Thrusting myself into things that were uncomfortable, you know, that maybe were fearful or gave me anxiety, but I was doing the hard stuff last year to make it easier this year.”
Now, Hamlin has been named the Bills' Week 1 starter alongside veteran safety Taylor Rapp for the first time since his collapse in Cincinnati.
“A dream come true, to work so hard and then get what you work for, but I want to continue on," Hamlin said. "It's not just about performing in one game, I want to be able to take my process and make it allow me to be successful the entire run.”
The decision, ultimately decided on by Bills coach Sean McDermott, was made because of Hamlin’s consistency on the field, despite all of the challenges he faced off it.
“What else can’t this young man do?" McDermott said. "It's one thing to come back off of an ACL or a broken bone. It's another thing to come back off of what he came back off of, right? Let alone just to decide to play football and contact football in full pads at the NFL level. I don't think I need to say anything more.”
Hamlin will now continue to take his role on one day at a time starting in the Bills season opener on Sunday afternoon against the Arizona Cardinals.