Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin made his return to Paycor Stadium this week for the first time since he went into Cardiac Arrest and collapsed on the field.
Before the game, he used the trip as a way to say thank you once again to 10 medical staffers who worked to save his life last January as he hosted the medical workers for dinner at Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse in Cincinnati.
Sunday’s game was the Bills’ first NFL game at Cincinnati since Hamlin’s ordeal forced officials to halt the game after his collapse. Hamlin was not active for the game so he mostly stood on the sidelines or sat on the bench all night.
After the game was over, he could be seen kneeling at the spot where he collapsed.
Not many thought his return was inspiring.
ESPN veteran sportscaster Bomani Jones took to his podcast to call out the NFL.
“The belief in this game and the way that people look at it is so powerful that they’ve got to believe they can make it into something good,” Jones said. “I’ll be honest, it’s been almost a year since all of this happened and I haven’t really reconciled where I am on it and how I feel about it.
“And you just keep showing me this … we’d all be better off acting like it didn’t happen.”
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“I do recognize that the role of sport in society is value promotion and all of these things. But now that everything has to be made into a television show, the NFL has to stand in every way for all that’s good,” Jones said. “And what they’re trying to do is turn what happened with Damar Hamlin into a story of inspiration.
“There is nothing inspiring about what happened.”
“If there’s an inspiration it is, yeah, the first responders and their ability to save somebody’s life under those circumstances,” Jones said. “Hearing about Damar Hamlin, all that does is make me sit there and question, ‘Why exactly am I doing this again? What am I watching this for?’”
Jones then spoke on the situation from January where Hamlin actually collapsed, died, and was brought back to life.
“It was one of the most awkward and honestly terrifying and unsettling moments that I can ever think of in watching a sporting event,” Jones added. “And you know it was terrifying and unsettling because they actually canceled the end of the game.”
“He’s become a mascot of sorts, and I don’t know really how to feel about that,” Jones said. “I don’t know just how much football had to do with what happened … so I don’t want to seem like one of those ‘football is evil’ kind of people.”
“It doesn’t make me feel good,” Jones said. “And that’s not because something is wrong with me.”
One of the first people Hamlin hugged when he got on the field was Tee Higgins as he was in the process of tackling him when he took a hard hit to his chest. When Hamlin attempted to walk, he crumpled to the turf.
Emergency workers were able to restore his heartbeat on the field.
His return to the field has been inspirational, although he has appeared in just one game so far this season.
Hamlin’s scary collapse touched people far beyond the NFL’s core fans, and millions of people have cheered his recovery. Bomani might not think it is inspirational but it reaches far beyond what he thinks.
