Damar Hamlin’s injury was horrifying but somewhat familiar.
The way Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field that led to the stoppage of their Monday night game with the Cincinnati Bengals may have resonated with UNC football fans.
Those who were at Kenan Stadium when official Jim Knight lay motionless on the field early in Carolina’s 48-20 win over Virginia in September 1997, probably had some hope that Hamlin would live.
The unconscious Hamlin, a former All-ACC defensive back at Pitt who played at Kenan in 2018, was given CPR on the field and then rushed out of the stadium in an ambulance, and reports later in the night said he survived.
My mind wandered back to Knight, a middle-aged man at the time, since an ambulance had taken him to the nearby UNC emergency room, where he was diagnosed with a major heart attack.
“His heart was stopped,” said Dr. Greg Mears, head of the Orange County Emergency Medical Services and one of the first to reach Knight. Thanks to Mears and the UNC medical trauma staff, Knight not only survived but returned to officiating the next season.
Besides similar initial treatment, there is little else in common with that and what happened to the 24-year-old player, whose future in football is obviously unknown.
We don’t know much about Hamlin’s recovery, but his injury seemed so severe that players on the Bills and Bengals were in such shock and tears that both head coaches lobbied the NFL for the game to not continue.
The UNC game went on with one less official, and the NFL did call off its game, which was critical in the playoff race and will create a scheduling conundrum in the last week of the regular season.
But, in a violent collision sport with injuries expected as part of the game, it was heart-warming to see the emotion of the players, coaches and fans who make pro football the most popular game in our country.
Certainly, this will create more criticism about dangers of football, and more parents will keep their kids from playing it.
What occurred in Cincinnati will not end the sport, but hopefully this will spur even better medical facilities on site and more research into safer rules and equipment in the future.
Featured image via Associated Press/Jeff Dean
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