In January 2023, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest on the field during a “Monday Night Football” game in one of the most frightening scenes in the history of American sports.
Less than two years later on Monday night, Hamlin recorded his first career interception. He did so on “Monday Night Football,” sending his teammates and a home Bills crowd into a frenzy.
The play took place late in the second quarter of Buffalo’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. With the Bills leading, 20-3, Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence threw a downfield pass on first-and-10 targeting rookie receiver Brian Thomas Jr. Instead, he found Hamlin, who picked off the pass at the Buffalo 40-yard line and returned it 19 yards to the Jacksonville 41.
The Highmark Stadium crowd erupted into cheers as Hamlin ran down the sideline to celebrate in the end zone with his fellow Bills defenders. He continued to receive accolades and congratulations from his teammates on the sideline.
It was a special moment for Hamlin, the Bills and the entire NFL community, which watched in horror on a Monday night in 2023 unsure if Hamlin would survive. Not only did Hamlin survive. But he’s now thriving as an NFL starter.
After a lengthy recovery process, Hamlin return to the Bills last season in a largely ceremonial role. He was a member of the roster, but played sparingly in a reserve role in five games, recording two tackles on the season.
Prior to Buffalo’s Sept. 8 season opener against the Arizona Cardinals, Bills coach Sean McDermott announced that Hamlin would return to his starting role that he held prior to his cardiac arrest.
“What else can’t this young man do?,” McDermott said on Sept 4. “He went through what he went through on the field, you guys have written about that over and over, and to come back from that — it’s one thing to come back from an ACL or a broken bone.
“It’s another thing to come back off what he came back off. Let alone 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. It’s incredible.”
Hamlin’s since started Buffalo’s first three games of the season, recording 14 tackles in two games before Monday’s game against Jacksonville. And how he has his first career interception on the same “Monday Night Football” broadcast that witnessed his terrifying scene on the field less than two years ago.