Damar Hamlin practices in pads today
On Monday, Bills safety Damar Hamlin will take the next step in his unlikely return to football, one that might have already won him the Comeback Player of the Year award.
As noted by Peter King in his first Football Morning in America column of the 2023-24 season, Hamlin will practice in pads for the first time since suffering cardiac arrest on the field in January.
It comes less than seven months after Hamlin's heart stopped following a routine hit to his chest. Absent any other diagnosis, the default theory continues to be that he suffered from the rare-but-real condition known as commotio cordis, when a blow to the chest causes the heart to stop.
“Damar’s got one hurdle left,” G.M. Brandon Beane told King on Sunday, referring to Hamlin's looming return to pads.
The hurdle is likely more mental than physical, and for good reason. It was a proverbial lightning strike for Hamlin. Will lightning strike him again? Is there something about his specific makeup that makes him susceptible to it?
Obviously, he has been thoroughly checked out physically. But it's one thing to be told you're fine. It's another thing to set aside any lingering concerns and to welcome another blow to the chest, eventually and inevitably.
“[P]utting the pads on is pretty much the last step for him," Bills cornerback Dane Jackson told King. "Once he gets comfortable doing that, then he’s back and he’s ready.”
There's another question swirling over the Bills, one that Tim Graham of TheAthletic.com broached last week. Will Hamlin make the 53-man roster?
Every team ultimately keeps the best players at the various positions. Hamlin played extensively last year, due to injuries suffered by other safeties. Whether the Bills deem him to merit a roster spot will depend on how he and the others competing for jobs perform over the next month.
It would be inconceivable to most casual fans for Hamlin to be released, and the Bills ultimately could be influenced by the potential P.R. blowback to the news that Hamlin has been cut. Regardless, every year is a competition at every position for every team.
Some players transcend that, or at least delay it. Some don't. For Hamlin, who was a sixth-round pick in 2021, the challenge of once again practicing football comes with a mandate to practice (and play in the preseason) well enough to land high enough on the depth chart to keep his job.
