The Buffalo Bills take on the New England Patriots on Sunday in their first game back since safety Damar Hamlin suffered a frightening on-field cardiac arrest.
His teary-eyed teammates were filmed praying and forming a protective cone around Hamlin on Monday night after he suddenly collapsed after making a crunching tackle.
DailyMail.com spoke to several psychologists about whether the mental health effects of witnessing the incident will have a lasting effect this weekend as they face a fierce rival.
Dr Leonard Jason, from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois, said he expects them to be tentative and fearful about aggressive tackles, with the horror scenes still present in their subconscious.
An unnamed player’s wife said she was worried about her spouse returning to the pitch, it was reported. Other players are also understood to be shaken. Pictured: Hamlin lying on the ground after the cardiac arrest on Monday night
Allen (17) and the Buffalo Bills react as Hamlin is tended to on the field after a collision. One is shown clutching his face in shock while another appears crest-fallen
Dr Jeffrey Brown, (left) a psychologist at Harvard University, said the team could be more motivated to play for Hamlin. But Dr Leonard Jason, a psychologist at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois, warned players could think twice before aggressive tackles
He said it could take years for that fear to go away — in a potential blow for this and future seasons.
However, Dr Jeffrey Brown, from Harvard Medical School, said the event may have ‘lit a fire’ under the team that spurs them to play above their usual level.
The developments in recent days would only add to that sense that the team will be more motivated to play for their hospitalized teammate.
Hamlin has now woken up and been taken off the ventilator. He has also been able to facetime his team, say a few words and flex his muscles for them.
Dr Brown told DailyMail.com: ‘I think that is going to be very encouraging for them all.
‘If they can hear from a player, I think that will be very beneficial because they are interacting with someone that they thought they’d lost.
‘It was very concerning at the time and they thought he had died.’
He added that the players may now have ‘more motivation or focus’, and want to win games for Hamlin.
Asked whether the injury may have ‘lit a fire’ of motivation under players, he said: ‘It’s possible.’
Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin (3) lies on the turf after making a tackle on Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins, blocked from view, as Buffalo Bills linebacker Tremaine Edmunds (49) assists at the end of the play during the first half of an NFL football game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Buffalo Bills
Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott takes a knee as Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin (3) is tended to on the field following a collision in the first quarter against the Cincinnati Bengals at Paycor Stadium
Dr Joshua Norman, a psychiatrist at Ohio State University, agreed that the team would be more motivated to play. But Pittsburgh Steelers safety Robert Gold said he decided to leave the NFL after witnessing one of his teammates suffer a life-changing injury
Dr Jamie Houle, at Ohio State University, also said the team would likely play better with a focus on winning the game.
When asked, he told DailyMail.com: ‘I think there is an opportunity for that for sure, they will be inspired to play and to go that extra step further.’
Dr Joshua Norman, a psychiatrist at the same university, agreed, telling DailyMail.com the team was likely now rallying behind Hamlin.
‘They may well want to rally on to win the game for a teammate they love, and one of their brothers. They could use it as inspiration. They will want to win games for him and play in his honor,’ he said.
‘I oftentimes think they find inspiration from playing for a player that might have had an injury or be going through something challenging in their lives.’
Other psychologists, however, warned that the team’s morale may have suffered long-term damage because of the ordeal.
In the immediate aftermath of the 24-year-old’s accident, players both on Hamlin’s team and the opposition Cincinnati Bengals were quick to raise concerns.
An unnamed player’s wife was said by reporter MLFootball to be ‘fearful for her spouse to step foot on a field’.
Another player was quoted saying he ‘did not know how he could step on an NFL field this week’ after seeing the injury.
In the video clip, Hamlin is shown tackling another player and then standing up before suddenly collapsing.
Medics are yet to say what caused him to collapse, but doctors have suggested it was most likely commotio cordis.
The extremely rare condition sees the chest struck at a precise time and location, throwing the heart’s pumping cycle out of rhythm and disrupting the flow of blood around the body.
The rare injury occurs when something makes contact with the chest wall precisely when the heart’s lower chambers start to refill with blood. The impact then causes a rapid and disorganized contraction of the heart’s lower chambers, preventing the heart from getting blood to the rest of the body. The window for this to happen is just 20 milliseconds, making commotio cordis incredibly rare. Just 30 people a year suffer the injury worldwide and only around 200 cases have been reported among Americans. It has previously been noted in young baseball or hockey players who receive a blow from a baseball or hockey puck to the center of their chests
Dr Jason predicted to DailyMail.com that players would now tackle less aggressively.
He said: ‘One thing they might think about is some of the types of hits that occur are not something that they need to do.
‘You don’t want to hit a quarterback in the head. Not only do you get a penalty, but you can hurt a person going at full speed.
‘So players may think to themselves, “I can be a good player, I can be a defensive player, I can try to hit the ball”.
‘[But] they will try to say, I will not deliberately do that [rough tackle] to this person. They will only hit the person in the right place.’
He added that some teammates may also be having second thoughts about continuing to play in the NFL.
‘For the most part, players have a three to four-year career, they make some money — but that won’t support them forever,’ he said.
‘So for them, what’s the risk-reward ratio?
‘They love the sport, getting the money, they love the game, but it is all short term. But then injuries that are not short-term.
‘On the other hand, not only can you end up dying, but you can probably have injuries that last forever — and that makes people think a bit.’
Asked how long the effects of Hamlin’s injury could last, he said it was years.
For some, the injury reminded them of when Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier damaged his spine while making a tackle in 2017.
Footage beamed to millions showed the player gasping for air and calling to his teammates as he lay on the ground in Cincinnati — unable to move his legs.
Medics rushed him to hospital where he was diagnosed with spinal contusion — when the sensitive nerves in the spinal cord are bruised.
He was immediately written off from ever playing again, and doctors even feared he would not regain the ability to work.
Fellow player Robert Golden, who was on the pitch at the time, told the Los Angeles Times that it was ‘hard’ to watch what happened to his teammate.
‘When something like that occurs to one of your teammates, your brothers, your friend, it’s hard to ever block that out of your mind,’ he said, ‘and go out there and ever give it your all again.’
‘I feel for Damar and his family but also his teammates.
‘Because I know the feeling down deep in my soul on whether or not I ever wanted to play football ever again.
‘I’m sure there are a lot of players in the NFL that feel the same way I felt back in 2017.’
Golden retired from NFL team Kansas City the following year during a training camp, instead deciding to set up an academy.
At the end of the last season Donald Parham suffered a significant concussion during a national game and was hospitalized for several days.
Speaking about what happened to Hamlin, he said: ‘I caught myself feeling like: “Dang, that was me last year, out there on the field feeling hopeless.”
‘We have faith that he will be back and be healthier than ever.’
Quarterback Baker Mayfield also commented that Hamlin’s tackle on Tee Higgins ‘looked like an ordinary play — and that’s the scary part’.
He added: ‘This is a violent sport.
‘But that’s about broken bones and different injuries like that, not life and death, so this is something I think we’re all going through for the first time.
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