It was 8:55 p.m on January 2nd 2023 with about 6 minutes left in the 1st quarter. Cincinnati Bengals’ Tee Higgins received the ball from Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, and coming in to make the tackle was Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin. He took a hard hit to bring Higgins down after 13 yards. Despite Hamlin getting up on his feet afterwards, he instantly collapsed to the ground again and remained there until being loaded onto an ambulance at 9:10 p.m, after medical trainers performed a 9 minute CPR to heroically save Hamlin’s life. The NFL audience sees injuries on a game-by-game basis.

But this injury in particular was nowhere near typical. This was one of the very few times in NFL history that an ambulance had to drive onto the field and remove an injured player. What seemed to be a routine tackle by Hamlin turned out to be an accident that was anything but routine, putting the Bills and football fans around the world in distress. Typically, when a player is carted off the field due to an injury, no matter how severe the situation is, there is almost always a positive signal coming from the injured player notioning that they’ll be okay.

However what was alarming about this accident was that there was no communication from Hamlin himself nor his teammates that suggested any signs of him being okay. Twelfth-grader Aidan Fischer states that “in the NFL world, a leg injury is a leg injury, [but in this case, Hamlin] was [practically] dead for about 8 minutes, which is something you almost never see.” As the status of the incident began to fall into place, Damar Hamlin was later announced to have suffered a cardiac arrest. On the field almost immediately after his collapse, Hamlin was given intense CPR for 9 minutes until his heartbeat was finally restored. He was in critical condition in the hospital for nine days before being discharged from the hospital and cleared to return home.

While the injury itself was of course traumatic, the extent to which this awareness spread was most astounding. No one in this generation of sports has ever experienced nor seen a football injury this close to fatality, which is why it sparked a wave of commotion to football fans all across the country. 

With Hamlin slowly improving everyday, we can now recognize the widespread impact that he has permanently left on his legacy and the game of football played all over the country. One positive aspect coming out of his injury was that his own charity, “The Chasing M’s Foundation,” which supports toy drives, back-to-school drives, kids camps, and more, has gained immense popularity since the incident took place. With the help of 245,000 donors, the charity grew from $2,500 to about $8.7 million practically overnight.

Not only has Hamlin’s injury affected aspects of his own life, but high schools and colleges are now left with the decisions to rethink if there should be adjustments in the rules of the game, or a change in how they should train their players. Hamling's injury has sparked discussion among colleges and high schools as to whether the rules of the game should be adjusted to prevent freak accidents.

Riverdale’s athletic director John Pizzi says that 5 years ago, when the last game of the varsity football team’s season had only 18 healthy players, he had called the head of the Concussion Legacy Foundation and compiled a “whole list of rule changes'' to implement across the entire league, such as eliminating kickoffs and onside kicks. Mr. Pizzi states that the reason “kickoffs cover 21% of concussions [is because] people are running straight into each other.”

However, while these in-game rule changes are certainly a step-forward towards a safer football environment, what players do in practice can also prevent countless potential injuries in a game. For example, there’s “only 15 minutes of contact-practice per team practice,” which coincides with Aidan’s argument that “a concussion is not always caused by just one hit” as it could also be caused by the repetition “of knocks to your head.”

However, while there is progression in avoiding injuries here at Riverdale, Aidan argues that there’s only so much you can do to halter injuries during the game because as a player, “you're signing up knowing that an injury is possible.” There are certainly more safety precautions that can be taken, such as implementing “a two point stance for lineman,” which can prevent heads clashing into each other, however, injuries are unfortunately a part of the game that you simply can’t control unless you don’t play it at all.

While the physical components of recovering from an injury are certainly challenging, in many instances the mental adversities you face can be just as difficult. Being forced to watch the game from the bench while your teammates, forced to sit back and watch knowing that you’ll be sidelined from playing your favorite sport while your teammates shine on the field simply “sucks.” As a player who has dealt with gruesome injuries himself, Aidan knows from experience that when being sidelined from an injury “you lose [that feeling of being a part of the team] when you’re not playing.” However, going to every practice, game and team dinners can make all the difference in the world in making the recovery process easier.

It is evident that love and support from your teammates is one of the best medicines in getting back on the field as soon as possible. Damar Hamlin’s incident has proved this to be true. Whether it’s as minor as a fractured finger, or as traumatic and inimitable as Damar Hamlin’s injury, each and every athlete will face adversities throughout their careers. The setbacks of injuries will always be agonizing, but the ways in which you and your teammates combat them will make the difference in your future success as an athlete.