Damar Hamlin Has Been Cleared By Several Specialists To Play Football

The Buffalo Bill’s Damar Hamlin has been cleared to join his Buffalo Bills squad on the field again. 

ESPN reports that the safety made his last visit to his specialist on Friday, and he has been participating in voluntary workouts with teammates. 

“He’s fully cleared, he’s here and he is of the mindset; he’s in a great head space to come back and make his return,” Brandon Beane, Buffalo Bills general manager, said to ESPN. 

In January, Hamlin scared the football community when he suffered a cardiac arrest during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Since then, Hamlin has visited several specialists, all of whom concluded that the safety could play football if he chooses to, according to ESPN. 

“When he left Cincinnati, he came here; it was Buffalo General [Hospital],” Beane said to ESPN. “He saw a couple of specialists here in Buffalo, and then, since then, he’s seen three additional specialists, most recently on Friday, and they’re all in agreement. It’s not 2-1 or 3-1 or anything like that. They’re all in lockstep of what this was and that he’s cleared, resumed full activities just like anyone else who was coming back from an injury or whatever.”

For Hamlin, returning to the football field has been his goal since the unfortunate incident in January. 

“Eventually. That’s always the goal, like I said, as a competitor, you know, I’m trying to do things to keep advancing my situation,” Hamlin told Michael Strahan during an interview on Fox Super Bowl LVII, cited by ESPN. “But I’m allowing that to be in God’s hands. I’m just thankful he gave me a second chance.”

Hamlin hasn’t only been focused on returning to the game he loves. He’s also been busy promoting laws to give schools better access to automated external defibrillators (AEDs). 

The Bills’ voluntary offseason began on Monday.