Bills look for ways to cope
Teammates attempt to balance thinking about Hamlin while continuing preparations for remainder of season
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Over seven seasons, former Buffalo Bills right tackle Daryl Williams prepared for 89 games. For the ensuing three hours, he would literally crack heads against players who would use their athletic ability to explode into him. It was his job to halt their path to protect the quarterback or create lanes for the running backs.
Before each of those meetings, early or late in the season, preseason or the playoffs, with the Carolina Panthers or the Bills, Williams would address his higher power.
“As football players, it’s a very violent and brutal sport at its highest level,” he said. “Speaking from personal experience, in the back of my head (before each game) was, ‘Please, Lord, let me come out healthy, not even from injury, but life.’ ”
The fragility of life, in general, and life playing football, in particular, was on full display for not only the NFL, but the entire world last Monday in Cincinnati. Bills safety Damar Hamlin made a routine tackle, but fell into cardiac arrest, requiring him to be resuscitated on the turf and rushed to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where he remained during the week.
As Hamlin received top-level care, what about his teammates and coaches, the teammates and coaches who were yards away from him when he collapsed? The teammates and coaches who had spent hours each day with him since late July? What kind of care do they require after the rarest kind of front-row seat trauma?
As Hamlin started his recovery, progressing from the immediate trauma to responding through non-verbal communication Thursday to having his breathing tube removed and visiting with his teammates and coaches via FaceTime on Friday, the Bills had a dual task — one very serious and one less serious based on the circumstances: They had to deal with the shockand-horror effect of seeing their teammate’s life kept alive and, once they arrived at the team facility Wednesday, devote a sliver of their focus to playing the New England Patriots on Sunday.
It was new territory for everybody. The players. The coaches. The support staff. The mental health professionals. It was serious territory. Hamlin was critically ill in an intensive care unit 424 miles away. They couldn’t see his face. They couldn’t text him or call him. They could only wait for updates in bits and pieces, the kind of wait that seemed interminable.
“There is no script and no reference,” said psychologist Scott Goldman, who has worked with the Miami Dolphins and Detroit Lions. “What is a normal reaction to an abnormal event?”
Experiencing trauma
In November 2007, the Washington NFL team lost at Tampa Bay, a game played without injured safety Sean Taylor. Unbeknownst to the organization, Taylor was at his home in south Florida, where he was shot during a botched home invasion and was announced dead on a Tuesday. Washington hosted the Bills five days later and lost. But the games went on.
What happened in Cincinnati was different in two important aspects: First, obviously, Hamlin survived. But this was not an injury sustained away from football, out of the view of his teammates and coaches, the thousands in attendance and millions watching on television.
This ... was ... right ... there. The reaction of the Bills’ players was raw and wrenching. Football players always say the only guarantee is “a 100 percent chance of being injured.” Games have continued after players were immobilized and stretchered off. A prime example of that came in Week 2 against Tennessee, when Bills cornerback Dane Jackson’s neck was bent back during a play and he was transported to the hospital. Call it being conditioned or being desensitized, playing on is a part of the culture.
The Hamlin episode was different because of its unique nature.
“The brain is always future-minded and tries to anticipate threats and dangers, and they do that by its historical database,” Goldman said. “The brain is constantly collecting data and information, and then it starts to look for pattern recognition.
“When somebody witnesses what they did Monday night, they go into their own historical database and for so many of them, there was nothing there to reference to. The brain is saying, ‘I don’t know what to make of this.’ When you don’t have anything to reference it to, the common word you hear is ‘surreal,’ because there isn’t anything to anchor it to. And then you have to make sense of it.”
Sourav Sengupta, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University at Buffalo, said seeing Hamlin injured is Exhibit A of trauma.
“That is so challenging,” he said. “These are professional athletes, and they’re involved in a sport where injury is a part of it, but this was a life-threatening episode, and, in the moment, they weren’t sure if (Hamlin) would survive. In that context, it is so jarring and rattling.”
Mental health awareness
In 2010, the NFLPA hired their first director of wellness, Dr. Nyaka NiiLampti, to build out their mental health resources. Executive director DeMaurice Smith said that allowed the union to “provide whatever services we needed to provide to (members) in the country, free of charge.”
The shift to acceptance in acknowledging the need for mental-health assistance may have been long in arriving, but when it did, progress was steady.
“In the last 3-5 years, whether it’s the NFL, the NBA, MLB, the NCAA, it has become front and center, as far as being a priority and understanding athletes are human beings first,” said Kellie Peiper, a sports psychology consultant who previously worked at UB. “We still have a long way to go in reducing the stigma and normalize (the reality) that athletes are just like everybody else.
“If anything, athletes can tend to struggle with mental health at a tick higher level. On one hand, there are so many positive and protective factors about being an athlete — you’ve got support around you all the time and you’re physically healthy. But on the flip side, there is a lot of pressure. You have eyes on you all the time. The expectations are high, and that can create the tendency to have some concerns.”
Said Sengupta: “I have been so impressed over the last several years seeing athletes take brave steps forward to champion the idea of mental health being important, and part of being a healthy, well-functioning individual includes taking care of one’s emotional, mental and cognitive health.”
Mental health professionals have been at the Bills’ disposal all week. NiiLampi is now the NFL’s vice president of wellness and clinical services and works in conjunction with NFLPA director of player wellness Dr. Amber Cargill. The Bills’ team psychologist is Dr. Desaree Festa.
Preparing for Patriots
The Bills held a walk-through Wednesday and practice Thursday and Friday, the first signs of regular business since Monday night. On Thursday morning, the team received the good news that Hamlin was responding to commands. And before Friday’s workout, they were able to see and hear Hamlin during the aforementioned FaceTime call, which was projected on the big screen in the team meeting room.
“I don’t think there is anything that could replace that,” said Peiper, who works with private clients of all age groups and sports. “Feeling like there is a move in the right direction and knowing the game is going to stay on the calendar, you channel the energy (from the positive news) in a way that allows them to thrive.”
The emotions in the stadium will be at full tilt as the Bills wear a No. 3 patch on their jerseys, and a No. 3 will be painted onto the playing surface. This is why news of Hamlin’s progress will help. They know their friend is getting better. They can play more freely.
“This is something that hit everybody hard and hit their families very hardh, as well,” said NFLPA president J.C. Tretter, a native of Batavia who played eight NFL seasons. “Obviously, we’re getting good news, which is helpful to (the Bills’) locker room and all locker rooms.”
Said longtime player agent Leigh Steinberg: “What you want to make sure is that they’re playing with the same zest and confidence they normally would because you can’t lower your level of performance and be safer. As a matter of fact, people feel like not going full-out ends up being a precursor to injury.”
The Bills have spent most of the season rallying around each other and their community. Tight end Dawson Knox’s younger brother died suddenly in September. Injuries beset the roster throughout. They had to dig themselves a snow-covered path to catch a ride to the plane that would take them to Detroit for a “home” game. They spent Christmas Eve night in Chicago. And now the Hamlin injury.
“I was reminded this year ... how real — and this is probably a message for fans out there — how real these guys are,” McDermott said Friday. “They’re not robots. They’re real people with real families, real issues in their personal lives.”
Routine will be important Sunday to carry out the task of winning a game. It’s understandable and acceptable to play while still worried about Hamlin.
“I think getting an opportunity to hear from (Hamlin) is the first step,” said former NFL safety Ryan Clark, who now works for ESPN. “But you truly don’t know how you react until you’re out there. I think for some people, it’ll be like riding a bike. They’ll get back out there and be able to be everything they always were and go out and perform right away. And for some people, I think they have to work their way into it.”