Bengals coach Zac Taylor shared on Wednesday what Bills coach Sean McDermott told him immediately after safety Damar Hamlin collapsed during their Monday night game.
“When I got over there, the first thing he said was, ‘I need to be at the hospital with Damar. I shouldn’t be coaching this game,’” Taylor recalled. “That, to me, provides all the clarity because there was no . . . all his focus was on Damar and being there for him, being there for his family at the hospital.”
The conversation occurred before the NFL officially announced that the game was postponed. Hamlin is currently at the the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and is still in critical condition after going into cardiac arrest.
Hamlin appeared to make a routine tackle in the first quarter and after getting up from the ground he collapsed. He was administered CPR on the field and was then taken away in an ambulance. Hamlin was then transferred to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and is still there. His uncle, Dorrian Glenn, told CNN on Tuesday night that Hamlin had to be resuscitated twice—once on the field and once at the hospital—when his heart stopped beating. Jordon Rooney, Hamlin’s marketing rep and friend, has since clarified that he was only resuscitated once, on the field.
“There’s a lot of medical jargon, a lot of things being said, so Damar’s only been resuscitated once,” Rooney said, adding that Glenn “misspoke,” per CNN, “His uncle’s incredibly supportive of his, of his nephew. … I think that, you know, he just wanted to do his part to share some good news.”
In their most recent update on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. ET, the Bills announced that Hamlin has shown signs of improvement, but still remains in critical condition and in the intensive care unit.
