Hamlin’s Comeback Player of the Year journey doesn’t end with award

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The first thing that you need to know about Damar Hamlin‘s comeback is that it’s not complete. It’s still happening for the Buffalo Bills safety over a year after suffering cardiac arrest during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

While a season back in the NFL was completed amid the many significant steps of Hamlin’s recovery, that journey is ongoing.

“My focus was just coming back. That was the hardest part,” Hamlin told ESPN at the end of January, while speaking as part of a promotion for Bounty’s “Ultimate Wingmen” campaign along with teammate Dane Jackson. “… Just growing and trying to get back to myself, and then … trying to rebuild myself into something that I haven’t been yet.

Hamlin, 25, who won the Pro Football Writers of America’s Comeback Player of the Year award last month, is one of five finalists for the Associated Press’ Comeback Player of the Year award given out during NFL Honors on Thursday night in Las Vegas (9 p.m. EST, CBS/NFL Network). It’s an award with no definition as the Associated Press confirmed that voters (50 nationwide reporters who cover the league) are not given a guide as to what qualifies for the award.

MLB awards it to a player in each league “who has re-emerged on the field during the season.” Pitcher Liam Hendriks was one of the 2023 winners after a return to the field after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and later announcing he was cancer free. He played only five games because of a separate injury.

The award doesn’t exist in the NBA anymore. It was phased out after six years in the 1980s because of difficulties clarifying its requirements.

In the NHL, the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy goes to “to the National Hockey League player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey.”

While Thursday’s trophy will go to one player, an award can’t capture what Hamlin has been through from both a physical and mental perspective. Hamlin was cleared to play in April, and chose to do so after visiting with a variety of heart specialists around the country. Then he earned a spot on the Buffalo Bills’ 53-man roster and contributed to five regular-season and two playoff games as a special teams player and backup safety. All that while contending with eyes and attention that hadn’t existed previously for the third-year player.

Putting on the jersey and pads for his first regular-season game back in Week 4 was an accomplishment in itself. In November, he had a special moment back on the field in Cincinnati despite not being active for the game, taking time after a Bills loss to walk around the field by himself and kneel near where he collapsed. He later posted to social media, “Tonight was everything for me.. y’all don’t know the half of it. Trust me.”

What Hamlin went through mentally is something that can’t be judged externally.

“What happened to me, it was [so] random, and it was any moment,” Hamlin said during training camp when asked about taking hits. “But that feeling, you know, it’ll never go away. First day, last day, when I retire — it’ll never go away. But like I said, man, my faith is stronger than … that fear that’s in there. And when I hit that field, I’m not thinking twice. … But those feelings will be in there forever, and I’m not afraid to say that.”

Doug Flutie wasn’t aware that Hamlin could join him as the only Bills players to win the award, “That’s cool. I love that. … That’d be great,” Flutie told ESPN. “I’d be proud to share that with him any day of the week.”

The AP’s first comeback player award was given out in 1998, when Flutie won it for guiding the Bills to the playoffs after returning to the NFL as a free agent from the Canadian Football League and playing as a midseason injury replacement midseason.

Flutie can’t recall the specific moment he was informed he won the award and said he doesn’t have a trophy or anything that he’s aware of to denote the accomplishment — a far cry from the lavish televised awards ceremony of today — but he does remember the significance of it.

“It kind of established and validated me being back in the NFL. That’s kind of the way I viewed it. It was very flattering to be acknowledged,” Flutie told ESPN. “I think it’s very important to acknowledge guys that fight adversity to get back. … It’s really kind of a resiliency-type award. Sometimes, you look at it as guys that just don’t quit.”

The former quarterback remarked on the confidence it took to have success on the field, something he found during his time in the CFL and a skill that high-level athletes have to learn to “block things out and focus on the task at hand and go forward, just keep stepping forward.”

The impact of Jan. 2, 2023, can be measured in different ways. There’s what Hamlin, an NFLPA Alan Page Community Award winner, has done away from the field given his understanding of the impact his story could have.

Per the CDC, more than 365,000 people suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the United States every year and about 60% to 80% die before reaching the hospital. While Hamlin had athletic trainers on the field and medical equipment available, that’s not the norm. Hamlin’s Chasing M’s Foundation held a CPR tour to spread CPR and automated external defibrillator (AED) education, in addition to other work.

The Bills started a partnership with the American Heart Association, with more than 10,000 people in Western New York taking part in hands-only CPR education. Since Hamlin’s incident, the American Red Cross has experienced a notable increase in CPR and AED course enrollments and inquiries on how to obtain an AED. Sports leagues at a variety of levels have examined and changed their practices.

The NFL — along with other major sports leagues and leading health advocacy organizations — launched the Smart Heart Sports Coalition in March 2023 with the goal for every state to adopt policies that will prevent fatalities from sudden cardiac arrest among high school athletes and others.

“What Damar has done with it is amazing,” Bills general manager Brandon Beane said in November. “… A lot of positive came out of that.”

What happened to Hamlin resonated around the world, but it also served as a reminder of who is out there on the field.

“Fans look at these guys on the field as almost superhero-ish where they’re just these great athletes,” Flutie said. “They don’t realize they’re just regular Joes that have the ability to go out there and mentally be tough and do these things and fight back through adversity.

“… That night brought it back to reality, that these guys have their own lives and families and wives and kids and I think it changes a little bit the perspective of a regular fan looking at a player and saying, ‘Oh, he is just a player.’ No, all of a sudden it became personal and it was the reality of it.”