The 2023 ESPY Awards featured a moving moment between Damar Hamlin and the Buffalo Bills' training staff.
Following a video where Hamlin discussed the life-saving efforts of Buffalo's training staff, Hamlin was given a standing ovation as he stood on the Dolby Theatre stage in Los Angeles on Wednesday night. The Bills safety, who was overcome with emotion, then presented the training staff with the Pat Tillman Award for Service.
Members of the training staff comforted an emotional Hamlin when they joined him on the stage.
"This team next to me who is celebrated tonight, we're not used to having the spotlight on us. We were just doing our job," said Bills head athletic trainer Nate Breske. "But the idea of service is definitely something that is ingrained in our profession and that we take great pride in."
The emotional scene came just over six months after Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest on the field during a Jan. 2 game in Cincinnati. Immediate response efforts from the Bills' training staff, which included administering CPR, helped save Hamlin's life.
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After spending 10 days in hospitals in Cincinnati and Buffalo, Hamlin was discharged to continue his rehab at home and with the Bills. The 25-year-old was cleared to return to football in mid-April and practiced for the first time since his near-death experience in early June.
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"This story is about a lot of things. But to us, it's about raising awareness of cardiac events, which happen every day in so many different places," Breske said. "If there's one thing we hope you take away from this tonight: learn CPR and how to use an AED, because they save lives."
The Pat Tillman Award for Service was established in 2014 to honor the life and legacy of Pat Tillman. After playing four seasons in the NFL, Tillman stepped away from football and enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2002 in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He was killed by friendly fire while serving in Afghanistan in 2004 at age 27.
