A Frightening Injury Shows Hope for Humanity

Damar Hamlin Nearly Died Playing Football, but the Response Has Been Outstanding

Damar Hamlin, just 24 years old, heart stopped while playing football January 1.

Last Sunday night, New Year’s Day, an American NFL football player, Damar Hamlin, suffered cardiac arrest in a game between the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals. He made a tackle, stood up, wavered, took two steps back and fell to the ground. Medical professionals rushed to the field and administered CPR for nine minutes to restore his heartbeat, as players from both teams reacted with horror and tears. They gathered on the field, not as opponents, but as united human beings.

Damar, a Buffalo Bill and just 24 years of age, left in an ambulance, condition and fate unknown, accompanied by his mother who rushed down from the stands. The teams left the field, devastated, unable to continue. The game was cancelled after an hour and a half of baffling indecision by the league.

The Cincinnati stadium was quiet and respectful. At that moment knowing death may be at hand for this young man, everyone attending, and millions watching on television had a moment of realization. This human being might die for playing a game. Zac Taylor, the Cincinnati coach, approached Sean McDermott, the Buffalo coach, about stopping the play. Both recognized the inappropriateness of continuing play, but the billionaires who run the league apparently needed time to make the calculus.

I have a mixed relationship with football. As a kid, I loved both the action and bonding, as I watched with my father. The athleticism is often astonishing. It’s remarkable, probably a bit crazy, how much fan’s emotions and the identity of entire cities get wrapped up in a team. The players become heroes, projections of our own dreams, and a momentary escape from our problems. However, my relationship with the game changed as I grew older, recognizing the price players pay from injuries. Bad enough, broken bones and torn cartilage—those I questionably tolerated—but when CTE (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy) became known, brain damage that can’t be diagnosed until a player is dead, I stopped watching. That disturbed me, deeply. CTE has been diagnosed postmortem in numerous retired football players that later committed suicide, including Junior Seau at age 43, and Dave Duerson at 50, both Pro Bowl caliber players. Seau was inducted into the pro football Hall of Fame as well, where conspicuously, no reference to his brain damage or suicide is mentioned. CTE changes personalities, cognitive process, causes memory loss, and suicidal thoughts. Another Pro Bowl player, tight end Aaron Hernandez, with a promising future went to prison for murder, and hung himself there at age 27. Not surprisingly, it was discovered Hernandez “suffered substantial damage to parts of the brain that affect memory, judgment, and behavior” and was “the most severe case of a degenerative disease linked to head blows ever found in someone so young,” according to a researcher.

Those who loved these men helplessly watched their personalities change, and witnessed their self-destruction. Their brains were dying.

Junior, Dave, and Aaron made it to the pinnacle of their professions, but CTE happens in the high school and college ranks to players who never have a chance for a big payday. CTE may very well happen in Pee Wee league football, where tiny children with their even more fragile brains play. The crash in this video with an “adult” encouraging the two children to ram their heads together is unconscionable, and one child is unable to get up from the ground. If this isn’t parental malpractice, I don’t know what is. The true numbers of CTE victims is unknown, but a 2017 study of 202 brains by Boston University revealed a 99 percent probability in NFL players, 88 percent probability in CFL players, and 91 percent probability in college players to be damaged by CTE. To watch football is to watch brain damage happening.

Occasionally, deaths have happened on the field. In 1971, when I was a 10-year-old kid, I witnessed a 28-year-old football player, Chuck Hughes, collapse. Like the Bills and Bengals, the game was stopped as they administered CPR. Hughes was taken away in an ambulance. I didn’t realize until later, this young man was dead on the field that day. Unbelievably, they chose to continue the game. It’s difficult to imagine how either team functioned, or the lack of humanity in that decision. Yet inhumane acts happen every minute of every day, in every part of the world. Mostly these acts are carefully hidden from us, or sanitized and presented without emotion. We are desensitized by routine killing, violence and destruction. We think of the victims as “them,” or “those people,” not us.

I primarily write about climate change and related issues. The reason I write about Damar and these related tragedies is twofold. One, while we absurdly argue about whether climate change is real or not, and what the solutions might be, I find what is not discussed and key to address are our behavioral problems, which have led us to this precipice. Two, on Sunday night I saw that people can be galvanized in a common desire, a cause that drops our manufactured divisions, and allow us to become one. Never in the brief history of humanity has the ability to come together been more important.

For that hour and a half of horror on Sunday night, I oddly felt hope. I saw the hearts of people united, and the game was stopped this time. Perhaps that’s a sign of progress, that we have accumulated enough wisdom to overcome our problems. The world is truly small now. It’s no longer one nation, it’s one earth. At that moment we weren't black or white, gay or straight, Republican or Democrat, we were humans. At that moment, our divisions dropped away, and we realized our commonality. We felt our shared dreams, and were reminded our lives are short. Being united is critical now, in this time of dangerous, deliberate, division.

No matter the period of history, or name of the political system, our divisions are always based on religion, skin color, political allegiance, and wealth. The worst one is wealth, because the wealthy exploit the other three to keep us divided. The wealthy can never be satiated, which is why democracies around the world are teetering. The rich were content to feed off the poor for a while, but for decades now have turned on the briefly-created, post WWII middle class. Now we are all poor, and unable to gain security to that which all people have a right, our earth. Just a handful of obscenely wealthy people own the planet now, and are making terrible decisions about her future, our future, while we complacently sit by.

Billionaires can only be created from harvesting the planet unsustainably and oppressing the majority. This is accomplished by 24/7 disinformation, working us until we have no energy to act, dividing us with hatred and mistrust, providing mind-numbing entertainment, and a constant parade of goods promising happiness never achieved. Happiness is a question of the soul, not objects or distractions. This system is enforced by the police and realized through military might that backs corporate plunder in poor nations. It’s increasingly reflected in how we’re narrowly educated and not taught critical thinking. No matter the political system, whether it’s overt or subtle, it always comes down to class warfare. It’s time to lose our divisions. Sunday night showed me that it’s possible.

After 35 years away, I returned to Buffalo a year and a half ago. I went to college here. It’s a city of hardworking people. Strangers help strangers, and neighbors are still neighborly. It’s a small city to have a pro football team, and people love it. In returning, it was easy for me to pick up football again, as it’s a common bond, and an enjoyable way to be with family, and friends.

Damar’s condition is improving. He was kept sedated and on oxygen in critical condition for days. The tube has been removed. He was able to communicate in writing yesterday, and today was able to speak to his coach and team briefly. The next concern is his lungs, which can be damaged from cardiac arrest. Damar grew up in a tough town near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, McKees Rocks, with a population under 6,000 that has a high crime rate, and lost friends to gun violence. With his success, he wanted to give back to his community. He started a fundraiser, The Chasing M's Foundation. Damar originally set up a GoFundMe in 2020 for a toy drive that had accrued a modest $2600 before his injury, but as I look now has grown to nearly an astonishing $8 million. This shows me that the hateful, manufactured division and can be overcome.

The Bills play again on Sunday. I’m unsure if I will watch. My guilt for supporting a game that depends on violence has resurfaced. Part of my decision depends on the progress of Damar, but either way my enthusiasm will be muted, replaced by dread over every hit. My thoughts are for this young man, his family, friends, teammates, and the kindness humanity is capable of.