Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin has been cleared to return to play, general manager Brandon Beane said Tuesday, about four years after suffering a cardiac arrest and having to be resuscitated on the field during a game in Cincinnati. Participate in the team’s voluntary training program.
“He’s been fully cleared to resume activity,” Beane said, after the player met with a third and final specialist on Friday, the team’s clearance.
Beane said all three experts agreed Hamlin could return to play without fear of setbacks or complications. While the Bills had their own doctor sit in on Hamlin’s meeting with the specialist, Bean said the team was following the specialist’s lead.
Hamlin, who went down after a seemingly routine tackle in the first quarter against the Bengals on Jan. 2, a game that was suspended and ultimately called off, experienced what doctors said was a significant recover.
The second-year player from the McKee Rock suburb of Pittsburgh spent nearly 10 days recovering in hospitals in Cincinnati and Buffalo before being discharged. He eventually began touring Bills facilities and attended the season finale in the team’s 27-10 divisional playoff loss to Cincinnati.
Hamlin has since made numerous appearances across the country, including meeting with President Joe Biden last month. He received the NFLPA’s Alan Page Community Award during February’s Super Bowl festivities in Arizona. He also participated in a pregame ceremony in which the NFL honored the Bills and Bengals’ training and medical staff and first responders who treated the 24-year-old.
—John Warrow, Associated Press
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