Buffalo Bills Damar Hamlin Earns Starting Spot and Keeps ‘God First’
By Movieguide® Contributor
The Buffalo Bills have one of the best defenses in the entire NFL, and they have safety Damar Hamlin to thank for that.
Hamlin is second on the team in tackles with 47 and has also secured two interceptions.
He scored his first career interception during a Sept. 23 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, and he gave all the glory to God.
“It’s all God right there,” Hamlin said. “So, I been giving Him the praise like crazy lately.”
Per Sports Spectrum, “The second interception came less than a month later, on Oct. 20 against the Tennessee Titans, in a 34-10 rout. After his pick, Hamlin ran to the back of the end zone, knelt down, and folded his hands in prayer.”
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“I would say my motivation is walking my life, keeping God first, making sure that’s the relationship in my life that I’m mostly prioritizing,” Hamlin told Forbes.com in September. “That’s my main focus — just as far as any process — whether it’s my career, family, business, is keeping God first.”
Before starting his first NFL game since he went into cardiac arrest in January 2023, Hamlin told the media that it’s “Truly a blessing.”
READ MORE: ‘A BLESSING’: DAMAR HAMLIN DISCHARGED FROM HOSPITAL AFTER EXPERIENCING CARDIAC ARREST
“I reflect back on the whole process and not knowing if I would be able to play again,” he continued. “… Sitting with that uncertainty was eating at me because football is truly my passion. It’s the thing that I’ve always been obsessed with my entire life. … It all just goes to the power of being process oriented and taking things one day at a time and accepting where you are at each moment of the process.”
Bills head coach Sean McDermott echoed Hamlin, saying, “What else can’t this young man do? He basically went through what he went through on the field, you guys have written about that over and over, and to come back from that. It’s one thing to come back off of an ACL or a broken bone. It’s another thing to come back off of what he came back off of, right? Let alone just to decide to play football and contact football in full pads at the NFL level.”
“I don’t think I need to say anything more. It’s incredible. I think God’s hands have been on Damar and his family and will continue to be,” McDermott added. “We’re just extremely proud and full of gratitude to watch him go through what he’s went through and where he is now.”