Josh Allen opens up on what it was like being on the field during Damar Hamlin incident
Josh Allen watched Damar Hamlin stand nose-to-nose with one of the scariest incidents in NFL history. Now, he’s pulling back the curtain on his perspective.
“You’d never suspect that, right? Like what was going on, [stuff] that we were hearing from the training staff and the paramedics that were working on him — I mean it’s just like set in after about 45 seconds standing, out there like, ‘What’s going on?'” Allen recalled on “Bussin’ with the Boys.” “Then, all of the sudden, you hear some stuff and it’s like this. Yeah, it was nuts. An amazing effort by our training staff and amazing effort by him for fighting through it.”
For those unaware, Bills safety Damar Hamlin went down after colliding with Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins back in January. For a moment, the football world stood still as Hamlin didn’t move down on the field.
Rumors quickly spread of a concussion, paralysis or worse. In reality, Hamlin had suffered cardiac arrest and was forced to fight for his life on the field. With a whirlwind of concerning factors flying around the field, both teams headed back to the locker room.
At first, the NFL planned for the two teams to resume play after Hamlin was rescucitated and taken off the field. However, Allen knew that wasn’t a plausible reality.
“It’s a new spot for everybody to be in so I don’t fault anybody. But finally we’re just like, ‘Hold up, right? Like let’s go in the locker room. Let’s reconvene, like there’s guys sitting on the bench that looked in the face of death
“We’re in the locker room and we had to do some tough things in there and say some tough things, but we ultimately came to the decision, if there’s one guy in this room that can’t play, we don’t play. And obviously there was more than one guy that was like ‘No, I’m not not going out there,’ right? Then, nobody’s going out there,” Allen said.
At first, the NFL decided to suspend the regular season game, but eventually canceled the contest altogether. Allen didn’t care about a win or a loss. He cared about his teammate’s health, and was proud of how the NFL community gathered around Hamlin.
“The NFL community coming together — Prayers don’t hurt,” Allen said. “Everybody was united, cheering for one purpose, and that was the safety of Damar Hamlin. I think that was pretty cool.”
Hamlin is currently working on making a full recovery. The Buffalo hero practiced as a full participant in a Bills practice last month for the first time since the injury.