Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest during the team's game against the Cincinnati Bengals, ESPN Buffalo Bills reporter Alaina Getzenberg wrote in a report. His heartbeat was restored on the field, and he is listed in critical condition at a Cincinnati hospital.
Hamlin was given CPR on the field multiple minutes after he made a tackle on Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins with just more than eight minutes remaining in the first quarter. A stretcher was almost immediately brought onto the field before an ambulance arrived on the scene.
The game was postponed by the NFL after Hamlin received treatment on the field, Buffalo said in a Tuesday update. His vitals were back to normal after he was taken to the hospital, marketing rep Jordon Rooney confirmed in a tweet, adding he had been put to sleep to put a breathing tube down his throat.
The Bills remained at Paycor Stadium until shortly after midnight.
“Our thoughts are with Damar and the Buffalo Bills,” The NFL said in a statement. “We will provide more information as it becomes available.
“The NFL has been in constant communication with the NFL Players Association which is in agreement with postponing the game.”
NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations Troy Vincent Sr. said the well-being of Damar Hamlin, the players from both teams and their staffs were put at the forefront of the decision to postpone the game, ProFootballTalk writer Mike Florio wrote in a Monday article.
“It was really about Damar, and making sure that — look, I’ve never seen anything like it, since I’ve been playing,” Vincent said in a conference call. “So immediately my player had went on. And how do you resume play after you’ve seen such a traumatic event occur in front of you real time? And that’s the way we were thinking about it, Commissioner and I and others.”