The Buffalo Bills locked down the 2 seed in the AFC on Wednesday when the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers. As big of an accomplishment as it is for the team, it likely means even more for Bills safety Damar Hamlin.
It’s not hard to remember when the NFL was forced to end a game between the Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals because Hamlin suffered commotio cordis.
Hamlin is healthy and back on the field, now but he’s not stopping raising awareness for heart conditions. Per ESPN, United States President Joe Biden signed the HEARTS Act into law, a bill that Hamlin heavily supported and aims to improve resources for access to heart health.
Fans reacted to the news on social media.
“The law will help put automated external defibrillators in schools and make CPR training more accessible by creating a grant program at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to support CPR and AED training in elementary and secondary schools with the purchase of AEDs, funding AED and CPR training, and the development of cardiac emergency response plans,” one fan wrote on Twitter.
“Glad that he could take his circumstances and use them for good,” another fan added.
“The fact that it took an athlete on national television for laws like this to pass shows how slow American health is. Will it take more CTE deaths for head trauma to stop being normalised on the field, at job sites and in classrooms,” one person added.
It’s a good thing that some good is coming from Hamlin’s scary moment.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.