When football players at Central Catholic High in Pittsburgh heard that Damar Hamlin had collapsed while suffering what was later reported to be cardiac arrest during a Monday Night Football game, they leapt to support him.
After all, Hamlin was one of their own—a celebrated alum who became a star in college and was now playing for a championship contender in the Buffalo Bills. Suddenly, his very life was on the line in the latest disastrous on-field injury to plague the NFL.
“The current team wanted to assemble late last night and pray, but it was very, very late,” Central Catholic’s outgoing coach Terry Totten told The Daily Beast.
ADVERTISEMENT
Overnight and into the afternoon on Tuesday, Hamlin remained in critical condition in the intensive care unit of the University of Cincinnati Medical Center after his heart stopped on the field during the game against the Bengals, according to a tweet by the Bills. The team said his heartbeat was restored on the field, but he was removed in an ambulance—a ghastly scene even by the standards of America’s most brutal sport.
Before he fell to the turf on Monday night, Hamlin had completed a seemingly ordinary tackle on Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins. But after briefly standing up upon the conclusion of the play, he collapsed—and remained on the ground for what felt like an eternity, with CPR reportedly being provided on the field.
Totten said that when he was called over to the television to see his former player lying on the field, it was his worst nightmare. He retired just two weeks ago from a 43-year-long career, but “you never retire from these young people’s lives,” he told The Daily Beast.
“They’re good times that go along with their weddings and birthdays and things, but this is a tough one, you know,” said Totten. “You’re watching a guy you remember as a 13 year old gangly kid—fighting for his life.”
Totten coached Hamlin, of McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, for his four years of football at the school. He described the young player above all as “steady,” “loyal,” and someone who was “twice as good of a person” as he was a football player—and a man who enjoyed supporting his hometown charity.
A toy drive Hamlin started was buoyed by a massive surge in donations overnight into Tuesday, eclipsing $3 million in a matter of hours.
“It was very evident by his sophomore year he was special….Just an incredible football player, obviously by the fact that he has made it to the NFL and made it to a starting position on a big leading football team,” Totten said. “But he was an incredible person. I can’t say the word steady enough”
Totten gushed at length about his former player, recounting how he showed leadership when, after losing an early season game, the coach had arrived at practice the next morning to find Hamlin had suited up the team and was running practice already.
They went on to win the state championship.
“As a personal story, I had a son here who did not play football, but was a littler type guy–but I often saw Damar sit with him at lunch and befriend him, you know what I mean? He just reached across all lines.“
Even as its popularity is inescapable, pro football has been consumed by controversies in recent years, from its treatment of its majority-Black athletes to free speech to the existential danger posed by concussions and other head injuries.
Hamlin’s injury Monday became, for some, only the latest shocking example of the violence of the sport. And the immediate aftermath triggered outrage when ESPN broadcasters suggested the game was poised to resume, only for the NFL to belatedly postpone the game later Monday night (with no new date in sight).
For his part, Totten said that during his multiple decades of coaching, he’s seen the game get more dangerous. “It’s less safe because people are bigger, stronger and faster, and they run into each other,” he said, even as leagues have taken steps to curb head injuries by cracking down on helmet hits.
Totten also said it was inevitable that Hamlin’s stunning injury might rekindle conversations about how to avoid injuries like this in the future during games—which, unsurprisingly, he thinks should continue to be played.
“I asked my physical trainer here, and no one has that answer sitting here today, but certainly this could bring national attention to that,” he said.
“Those guys know every time they take… the field, there’s possibility of injury and serious injury,” Totten told The Daily Beast. “So yes, it’s the last thing you want to see. A twisted knee is one thing, but this is a whole different category.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, Hamlin was still in critical condition. And the crisis facing America’s favorite sport wasn’t going anywhere.
“We’re all in the same boat of not knowing,” Totten said. “Just hoping and praying.”
