Bills’ Hamlin is cleared to return
Having spent the past several months meeting President Biden, raising millions of dollars for his charitable foundation and promoting the benefits of CPR training, Bills safety Damar Hamlin can focus now on the next big objective in his life: returning to football.
Wearing a red woolen cap and a Bills blue pullover, Hamlin sat at the podium on Tuesday and said his heart — the one that stopped beating some four months ago during a game in Cincinnati — was, as he put it, “still in the game.”
“This was a life-changing event, but it’s not the end of my story,” Hamlin said. “I plan on making a comeback to the NFL.”
Addressing reporters for the first time since going into cardiac arrest and having to be resuscitated on the field, Hamlin reflected on the anxious moments he’s endured, his inner drive to not let fear stand in his way and how he no longer takes a minute of his life for granted.
“The ‘wow’ moment is every day just being able to wake up and just take deep breaths and live a peaceful life, to have a family and people that are around me that love me,” said Hamlin, who has been medically cleared to play and is taking part in the start of the Bills’ voluntary workout program.
“They almost lost me. Like I died on national TV, you know what I mean?” he added. “So that right there is the biggest blessing of it all, for me to still have my people, and my people still have me.”
General manager Brandon Beane announced earlier Hamlin was medically cleared to return to football after the 25-year-old met with a third and final specialist.
Rams to deal Robinson to Steelers
The Rams and Steelers are working on a deal that would send wide receiver Allen Robinson to Pittsburgh. A source with knowledge of the pending agreement said Los Angeles would send Robinson and its seventh-round pick (No. 251 overall) in the draft to the Steelers for one of Pittsburgh’s two seventh-round picks (No. 234) . . . Former NFL defensive end Chris Smith, who was touched by tragedy while he played for the Browns, has died. He was 31. The cause was not immediately known. Smith played for the XFL’s Seattle Sea Dragons this season. He spent eight seasons in the NFL with Jacksonville, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Las Vegas, and Houston. While Smith was with the Browns in 2019, his girlfriend, Petara Cordero, was killed when she was hit by a car after she exited the vehicle he was driving. Cordero was standing on the road’s shoulder when the vehicle driven by a 47year-old woman smashed into the passenger side of Smith’s car.