What to Know
- Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, 24, collapsed on the field on Monday Night Football after tackling Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins; he was down on the field for 10 minutes and needed CPR
- His condition has been improving. On Thursday, his trauma surgeon said in a written update, "Last night he was able to emerge and follow commands -- and even asked who had won the game"
- The NFL postponed Monday night's game indefinitely. It has said no changes have been made to the Week 18 schedule and is working with the players' union to provide all the necessary resources
Damar Hamlin's father reached out to the Buffalo Bills a day ago to deliver news that the playoff-bound NFL squad -- and the world -- desperately needed to hear: Their teammate and friend is making progress.
And Thursday morning, the Buffalo Bills tweeted the "remarkable" news that the safety is not only making steady progress, but appears to be neurologically intact.
No further details on the Zoom call the 24-year-old's father held with the entire team Wednesday were immediately available Thursday, but NBC News confirmed the conversation, and that it was a much-needed one. Hamlin friend and family spokesperson Jordon Rooney, a marketing manager, and Hamlin's agent told NBC that many players had reached out to Mario Hamlin after the call to let him know "that's what they were waiting to hear."
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Few details have been publicly shared on Hamlin's condition since he was hospitalized after going into cardiac arrest following an on-field tackle during Monday Night Football. Both the Bills and the family, speaking via Rooney, have said the Pittsburgh native remains at the University of Cincinnati intensive care unit in critical condition.
He had been sedated. That may not be the case anymore.
The hospital briefed reporters for the first time on Thursday to more or less confirm what the Bills tweeted earlier in the day -- that Hamlin was still critically ill despite the marked improvement. He's still on a ventilator.
UC trauma surgeon Dr. Timothy Pritts added this critical nugget in a written report, "Last night he was able to emerge and follow commands -- and even asked who had won the game."
A day ago, Rooney and the Bills confirmed doctors had noted small signs of progress, and while neither elaborated on those signs, the announcements offered the first sense of relief, albeit a meager one, for a public and an NFL community that has been holding their collective breaths since the emergency played out on live television.
Further hope came in a CNN interview Hamlin's friend and high school teammate, Rodney Thomas II, a safety for the Indianapolis Colts, gave Thursday. Thomas said he visited Hamlin in the hospital following his collapse, that he is "progressing every day" and that he was able to tell him at his bedside how much he loved him.
"I know he could hear me," Thomas told CNN. "I know what I said got across."
Asked what Hamlin is like off the field, Thomas told CNN that his friend is genuine, a family man and full of heart -- a beacon of light who "puts everyone else above him" and "wants to see everybody else succeed."
Hamlin's chilling collapse with 5:58 left to go in the first quarter of Monday night's game left the country reeling.
The NFL postponed the game, an unprecedented move in an unprecedented situation that resonates well beyond the sports world, as coaches and teammates -- and America -- struggled to understand what they had just seen unfold before their eyes, either live on the field or on live national television. It has not been rescheduled.
The league has been trying to navigate its tough playoff schedule, one that involves both teams that were playing on Monday night, and players' emotions -- all the while keeping its focus clearly, and primarily, on Hamlin.
An outpouring of support continues to swell, from strangers across the globe to floods of fans on social media, candlelight vigils from outside the hospital in Ohio to Hamlin's home field in Buffalo and more. The wife of Bengals' head coach Zac Taylor has spearheaded meal catering efforts for Hamlin's family, many of whom were at the game and have been by his side since he went down on the field in a collapse that stunned America.
Hamlin recently completed his third annual toy drive for his hometown with a goal of $2,500. By Tuesday night, the donation page had more than $5.5 million raised.
Dorrian Glenn, Hamlin's uncle, told the NFL Network it's been "tremendous" to see such support.
"A lot of people don't get a chance to see how loved they are while they're alive," Glenn said. "So for him to have a situation where he could've been taken away and he has a chance to come back to see all that love that he got, it's truly an amazing thing."
