Buffalo Bills' Damar Hamlin in Critical Condition After Collapsing on Field and Receiving CPR
Jeff Dean/AP/Shutterstock
Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin is in critical condition after he collapsed on the field during Monday Night Football.
The NFL has postponed the game for the night.
The injury occurred when Hamlin, 24, tackled Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins early in the first quarter of the game. He quickly popped back up, before suddenly falling to the ground. Medical personnel administered CPR to Hamlin and appeared to give him oxygen as he was loaded on an ambulance.
The 6'0", 200-lb. player was rushed to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center two miles away from the stadium. His parents, mother Nina and father Mario, were brought down from the stands to leave with him in the ambulance, ESPN reported.
Hamlin is reportedly intubated and doctors are running tests, but "his vitals are back to normal," his marketing representative Jordan Rooney said on Twitter an hour and a half after the collapse.
As medical staff worked on Hamlin, players from both teams kneeled on the field, with multiple Bills players crying.
Dylan Buell/Getty
The NFL decided an hour after his collapse to officially suspend the game for the night.
For more on this story, listen below to our daily podcast PEOPLE Every Day.
"Tonight's Buffalo Bills/Cincinnati Bengals game has been postponed after Buffalo Bills Damar Hamlin collapsed," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced in a statement. "Hamlin received immediate medical attention on the field by team and independent medical staff and local paramedics. He was then transported to a local hospital where he is in critical condition."
"Our thoughts are with Damar and with the Buffalo Bills."
Bryan Bennett/Getty Damar Hamlin
"This is about Damar Hamlin," former NFL player and ESPN commentator, Ryan Clark, said during the broadcast. "It was about a young man at 24-year-old living his dream…and now he fights for his life."
Hamlin, from McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, was selected in the sixth round of the 2021 NFL draft after playing for the University of Pittsburgh. He was a three-year starter at Pitt, and led the team with 67 tackles and seven pass breakups.
Hamlin has started for the Bills since Week 2, when he took over for safety Micah Hyde, who suffered a neck injury.
According to the Bills, Hamlin wanted to start a charity as soon as he finished his college career and joined the NFL, which led to the creation of The Chasing M's Foundation. He kicked off the charity with a fundraiser in 2020 that provided toys for Kelly and Nina's Daycare Center in his hometown.
"The idea popped into my head right after Clemson week," Hamlin told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at the time. "It sparked a thought in my head. But I actually couldn't do anything until after my eligibility was done as far as GoFundMe and all that ... This was all able to happen off that short amount of time. That just goes to show the support that the town, the city, all of Pitt fans and the University of Pittsburgh, everyone that grew up watching me and knew my story personally and have been a part of it, that's just a testament to how much they support me."
