After Bills safety collapses on field, the sports world offers prayers | Ex-NFL doc tries to diagnose what went wrong

In the scariest moment the sports world has seen in a long time, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field during Monday night’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals and was administered CPR before being driven away in an ambulance.

Hamlin collided with Bengals receiver Tee Higgins on a completion. He got to his feet, then fell backward and lay motionless. Medical staff scambled to his side as stunned players from both teams surrounded Hamlin. When he was taken off the field roughly 15 minutes later, the Bills gathered in prayer. The game was suspended a few minutes later.

YOU CAN WATCH VIDEO OF THE COLLAPSE HERE

Former NFL doctor David Chao tweeted: “The concern is for the person, not the game. Hope Hamlin is ok. Reaction seemed like a heart issue from the chest contusion. Other than a hospital, no better place to collapse.”

The reaction to Hamlin’s collapse was immediate on social media:

Hamlin was treated on the field by team and independent medical personnel and local paramedics, the NFL said, and he was taken by ambulance to University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

The NFL announced more than an hour after the injury that the game would not resume. When or if the teams would return to the field was not immediately clear.

“Our thoughts are with Damar and the Buffalo Bills. We will provide more information as it becomes available,” the league said in a statement. “The NFL has been in constant communication with the NFL Players Association which is in agreement with postponing the game.”

An ambulance was on the field four minutes after Hamlin collapsed, with many players in tears, including cornerback Tre’Davious White. The quarterbacks — Buffalo’s Josh Allen and Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow — embraced.

Hamlin collapsed at 8:55 p.m., and when he was taken off the field 16 minutes later, the Bills gathered in prayer. Five minutes after the ambulance departed, the game was suspended, and players walked off the field slowly and into their locker rooms.

Hamlin’s uniform was cut off and he appeared to be getting CPR from medical personnel. ESPN reported on its telecast that Hamlin was also given oxygen.

“No one’s been through this,” longtime NFL quarterback Troy Aikman said on the ESPN telecast. “I’ve never seen anything like it, either.”

The Bengals led 7-3 in the first quarter of a game between teams vying for the top playoff seed in the AFC. Cincinnati entered at 11-4 and leading the AFC North by one game over Baltimore, while AFC East champion Buffalo was 12-3.

The aftermath of the injury was reminiscent of when Bills tight end Kevin Everett lay motionless on the field after making a tackle on the second-half opening kickoff in Buffalo’s 2007 season-opening game against the Denver Broncos.

Everett sustained a spinal cord injury that initially left him partially paralyzed.

The 24-year-old Hamlin spent five years of college at Pittsburgh — his hometown — and appeared in 48 games for the Panthers over that span. He was a second-team All-ACC performer as a senior, was voted a team captain and was picked to play in the Senior Bowl.

He was drafted in the sixth round by the Bills in 2021, played in 14 games as a rookie and then became a starter this year once Micah Hyde was lost for the season to injury.

Entering the game, the 6-foot, 200-pound Hamlin had 91 tackles, including 63 solo tackles, and 1 1/2 sacks.

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