Damar Hamlin an incredible son, brother, survivor, giver and teammate

By now, most of you are familiar with what happened to Buffalo Bills’ 24-year old safety, Damar Hamlin, during the Bills game against our Cincinnati Bengals this past Monday Night. Both the NFL and Hamlin’s family released statements about his situation. You probably know what happened to him and how you personally felt in reaction to it. I’d rather tell you about who Damar Hamlin is, in his own words and the words of those who know him best. 

He is Nina’s and Mario’s Son. Nina was just 16 years old and Mario was 17 when Damar came into their lives.  

“I’m big on my family unit. My mom, my dad, my little brother—that’s pretty much my whole world. …. Any other thing going on in my life revolves around them.”  

Damar was only 12 years of age when Mario was sentenced to 10 years in prison for intent to sell drugs. He ended up serving 3 1/2 years. Damar wrote on Instagram this past Father’s Day about Mario: “We weathered every storm from hell & back together as a family. Not ashamed of our story cause it made us who we are. Happy Father’s Day pops. You taught me a lot in life but something that will always stick with me is making sacrifices for the people you love. Whatever it takes For The Family.”  

What it took back then was for Damar to work for his family’s office cleaning business. Damar went to work because Nina demanded it. She was doing everything she could to ensure Damar didn’t follow a similar path. In addition to cleaning offices at night, Nina also started and ran a daycare business to keep the family going.  

“My mother held everything down. She taught me hard work and dedication.” This is when Damar’s outlook on life changed. “I had to take reality for reality and couldn’t be a kid anymore. It was just me and my Mom now trying to survive. I had to grow up really fast. It instilled a toughness in me. That mental toughness. It built that work ethic in me. Just that time with not having my Dad around. I had to be a man. It changed my life.” 

He is a brother. Damar was an elite high school football player, the top-rated defensive player in the football state hot-bed that is Pennsylvania. He was heavily recruited by the nation’s preeminent college football powers. He chose to stay at home and attend the University of Pittsburgh. The primary reason was to be close to his then 2-year-old younger brother and serve as an example.  

“I wanted to give him that image growing up,” Damar told Tyler Long’s Go Long in 2021, “ that he can look back on and be able to model himself after. That’s something I never had. I had a bunch of examples of what not to do. I want to give him a different example. Me growing up, I always questioned if I was doing the right things. Just because I didn’t have anybody to look to, to say like, ‘This is the right thing to be doing.’ … I didn’t have anybody I could look to or lean on. That’s why I stayed home at Pitt. I chose Pitt over everybody. Just for that one reason—for my brother.” 

He is a survivor. Damar grew up in McKees Rocks, a borough outside of Pittsburgh with one of the highest crime rates in the country. Damar lost three close friends, all who were murdered when they were under the age of 18.  

“I’ve got so many friends who didn’t even make it to 21. It’s crazy. When you think about that—all the friends that you have—just imagine if half of them didn’t make it to 21.”  

Hamlin survived because of his parents’ regimented schedule of school, practice and work and also because Nina was able to get him into private school at Pittsburgh’s Central Catholic High School, which opened his eyes to other possibilities.  

“The way I grew up,” Hamlin says, “teaches you to cherish everybody in your life because you never know who you’ll lose. You could lose anybody. Everybody I talk to, I say ‘I love you.’” 

He is a giver. In 2020, at the end of his final year at Pitt, Damar organized a toy drive for kids in his hometown of McKees Rocks. Damar created a GoFundMe for his new foundation, which he named ChasingMs, which stands for “Chasing Millions,” a slogan he’s used throughout his life.  

The foundation’s GoFundMe page says, “As I embark on my journey to the NFL, I will never forget where I come from and I am committed to using my platform to positively impact the community that raised me. I created The Chasing M’s Foundation as a vehicle that will allow me to deliver that impact.”  

The foundation’s goal was $2,500. As of this writing, Damar’s foundation has raised more than $6 million and counting. He organized and hosted a celebrity kickball game in Pittsburgh along with the Philadelphia Eagles’ Miles Sanders with all proceeds going to The Pittsburgh Promise, whose mission is to promote high educational aspirations among urban youth, fund scholarships for post-secondary access and fuel a prepared and diverse regional workforce. He partnered with other Pittsburgh natives in the NFL on a youth football camp, PGH2thePros, to be a role model and inspiration to the kids back in his neighborhood.  

“I try to be a big voice for them,” Damar says “because I know what they’ve been going through. I know how hard it is. So I’m trying to push them, keep it positive and let them see me. Let them see it’s possible.”  

He is a terrific teammate. Bengals long snapper Cal Adomitis played with Damar at Central Catholic and Pitt. “Even though he was a dude who had 8 billion offers coming out of high school and I was just fighting to get on the field, he always treated me with respect… No matter what your role on the team was, he treated you with the same dignity.”  

Dane Jackson has also played with Damar at two different stops. They were college teammates together at the University of Pittsburgh and now are bonded again as teammates of the Buffalo Bills. Their connections made even deeper in that they belong to the same unit—the defensive secondary—meaning hours spent together building deep connections in the film room, locker room and on the practice field. Jackson sustained a serious neck injury earlier this season but quickly recovered.  

Just a few weeks ago, Damar appeared on OneBillsLive and talked about Jackson’s injury. “I can’t even describe it, but I cherish it every second that I can,” Hamlin says in the clip. “Every second of every day. We just had our prayer, our DB prayer we do every Wednesday. He [Jackson] was next to me and I just grabbed his hand a little bit harder just because you know you never know when your last day could be that you get to experience something like this. I’m cherishing every moment that I can.” 

This is who Damar Hamlin is. He is an incredible human being. Damar, his family and his teammates need our prayers, our love and our support. 

I believe Bengals President Mike Brown was very eloquent in his statement about Damar and the tragic incident. “Last night was supposed to be a great night for the NFL and a great showcase for our hometown,” Brown said. “Instead, the human side of our sport became paramount… and in that moment, humanity and love rose to the forefront.” 

I share these stories of Damar because it is important to see the human side of this story. We should all feel the heartbreak and the pain when one of our fellow humans are in pain or peril. Not only when these events happen on the fields, the courts and the courses of sports but also beyond them in other parts of our lives. Remember this moment and let it inspire you to see the human side in others and let “humanity and love” rise to the forefront. 

Jon Bunch is an avid life-long Bengals fanatic. Raised in the 740. West Pointer, Army and Iraq War veteran. Passionate evangelist of the Who-Dey spirit. @WhoDeyBunch