Bills’ Hamlin fully cleared following cardiac arrest

11:13 AM ET

• 

  Alaina GetzenbergESPN

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Bills safety Damar Hamlin has been fully cleared to return to playing football, Buffalo general manager Brandon Beane said Tuesday.

Hamlin saw his last specialist Friday and is in attendance and participating at voluntary workouts with the Bills this week.

“He’s fully cleared, he’s here and he is of the mindset; he’s in a great head space to come back and make his return,” Beane said.

The Bills began their voluntary offseason program Monday.

The announcement comes 3½ months after Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest during the first quarter of the Jan. 2 regular-season “Monday Night Football” game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Beane said that Hamlin has visited with a variety of specialists since returning from Cincinnati and that they have all been in agreement on his case and on his being able to fully return to playing football.

“When he left Cincinnati, he came here, it was Buffalo General [Hospital],” Beane said. “He saw a couple of specialists here in Buffalo, and then, since then, he’s seen three additional specialists, most recently on Friday, and they’re all in agreement. It’s not 2-1 or 3-1 or anything like that. They’re all in lockstep of what this was and that he’s cleared, resumed full activities just like anyone else who was coming back from an injury or whatever.”

Hamlin said in February that he hoped to return to the field.

“Eventually. That’s always the goal, like I said, as a competitor, you know, I’m trying to do things to keep advancing my situation,” Hamlin told Michael Strahan in an interview that aired on Fox during the Super Bowl LVII pregame show. “But I’m allowing that to be in God’s hands. I’m just thankful he gave me a second chance.”

Bills coach Sean McDermott said the team will continue to support Hamlin from a mental health perspective.

“He’s moving forward one step at a time here,” McDermott said. “He’s been cleared from a physical standpoint, and we’ll provide all the mental help we can from a mind, body and spirit standpoint.”

Last month, Hamlin spent time in Washington, D.C., to help promote the bipartisan legislation Access to AEDs, which would increase the availability of automated external defibrillators — and related training — on school campuses. He also met with President Joe Biden at the White House.

The NFL has launched the Smart Heart Sports Coalition, a collaboration with several groups to advocate for policies in all 50 states aimed at preventing fatal outcomes from sudden cardiac arrest among high school athletes. The goal of the coalition is to pass legislation at the state level and implement these policies within the next three years, and the group sent letters to governors of 43 states where it believes additional policies are needed.

Hamlin has had a busy couple of months, including receiving the NFLPA’s highest honor, the Alan Page Community Award, for his work helping others. His Chasing M’s Foundation raised more than $9 million in the days after he went to the hospital, with the money largely going through GoFundMe for a toy drive that had an initial goal of $2,500.

“It’s just good when great things happen to great people,” Bills pass-rusher Von Miller said. “With everything that has happened, he’s took full advantage of it, and he’s used the platform that he’s had from the exposure from everything that has happened, and he’s used that for good. And not just one time but multiple times. He’s been to the White House. He’s talking to kids like, he has taken full advantage of the opportunity that God has given him, and to see him get cleared to play football again, because I know all of that stuff, even though it’s great, but it really comes, for him, and I’m just speaking for him, it really comes secondary on going out there and living out your childhood dream.”

Hamlin was also recognized alongside the medical and athletic training staff of the Bills and Bengals and some of the staff from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center at the NFL Honors and on the field before Super Bowl LVII.

“It’s exciting to go from a guy who was fighting for his life to who is now, his story hasn’t been written,” said Beane, who spent multiple days in the hospital with Hamlin and his family. “Now it’s about the comeback, and so, to see that he, it was all about his health and it’s still, it’s always going to be about his health, but to truly, however many months later, be talking about he’s been fully cleared is pretty remarkable. And I’m excited for him and his family at where they are in this journey.”