PITTSFORD – There’s a different tenor to training camp this year for Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin.
Two years ago, he was just getting back to football, months after his sudden cardiac arrest. One year ago, he felt he needed to prove himself as a football player to the world all over again.
“I felt like I was chasing plays a lot to where I felt like I had to make plays so that people can see me as me as the athlete of what I can truly do on the field,” Hamlin said Monday. “Which, you know, kind of like had me antsy in my game a lot, in a lot of places, because I was kind of chasing plays.”
This year, Hamlin doesn’t feel he has anything to prove.
Day Eleven of Buffalo Bills Training Camp
Bills safety Damar Hamlin greets fans at training camp practice Wednesday in Pittsford. Harry Scull Jr., Buffalo News
“Coming around this year, I really have peace,” Hamlin said. “I don’t feel any outside-world expectations. I’m not worried about trying to get anybody’s labels off of me or anything like that. I’m just truly locked into allowing the game to come to me.”
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It’s not an attitude to confuse with complacency; Hamlin still wants to be his very best on the field, day in and day out. But the fifth-year safety is just finding his motivation internally now, instead of feeling the outside pressures.
“His battle is not with others – his battle is with himself,” Hamlin’s father, Mario, said.
Plus, Hamlin’s newfound peace is opening up his game. Cornerback Dane Jackson, who has known Hamlin since the two were kids growing up in Pittsburgh, is seeing it firsthand at camp.
“It’s a beautiful thing,” Jackson said. “We’re both out there, and he’s just flying around having fun. You can see it in his game, too. When you have peace, mentally, it’s easier for you to fly around and have fun out there and easier to make plays. So, you can see it fully displayed in his game.”
Bills camp observations: Dorian Strong makes big play; Spencer Brown full go
Strong is receiving more opportunities in practice because of the injury to first-round pick Maxwell Hairston.
So far, the Bills have needed Hamlin in camp. At the onset of camp, the starting safeties were Taylor Rapp and Cole Bishop. But Bishop, who is entering his second year, has been sidelined since last week with a quad injury. Rapp missed a day with a knee injury, too.
“Yeah, Damar’s consistent,” defensive coordinator Bobby Babich said Monday. “Damar’s having a solid camp. You know, we’ll see in these preseason games and things like that, right? But he’s had a solid camp.
“And here’s a guy that’s been in the system, right, and knows it, and he’s doing a good job quarterbacking the defense, and we need to make sure when it counts, we’re making plays.”
Hamlin is likely to get a good amount of play in the upcoming stretch. With Bishop’s lingering injury, Hamlin is seeing more and more play at camp.
Off the field, he’s busy as well. On a Tuesday off day for the team, Hamlin headed to the Dick’s House of Sport in nearby Victor. There, he hosted a CPR and Agility Clinic through his foundation, Chasing M’s. Hamlin was joined by Bills co-owner Terry Pegula, ahead of giving out automated external defibrillators to local teams and cycling through different stations. The American Heart Association was also there, for hands-only CPR training.
Day Eleven of Buffalo Bills Training Camp (copy)
Bills safeties coach Joe Danna, left, talks with Damar Hamlin during a training camp practice Wednesday in Pittsford. Harry Scull Jr., Buffalo News
Hamlin’s family met him at the event, traveling in that morning from Pittsburgh.
It’s a hectic time of year for the Hamlin family. Damar is a few days out from the first preseason game and sandwiched between long days of camp. Little brother Damir has his first football game this weekend, too. But for the family, it’s still important to carve out time for things like Tuesday’s clinic.
“Because the work (doesn’t) stop,” Mario said. “The people who need to get this training and get this access to AEDs, there’s never not a good time.”
In all aspects of Damar’s life, Mario has seen his son finding that peace as well.
“He just has a more humbling grasp on where he is in his direction in life,” Mario said.
Back on the field, that humility comes into play in building up the rest of the safety room. Outside Cam Lewis, who splits his reps at nickel cornerback, no one has been in the Bills’ safety room longer than Hamlin. Teammates like Bishop or rookie Jordan Hancock give Hamlin a chance to pass on his knowledge, even as he competes against them.
Because he is still competing.
“I want to be the best,” Hamlin said. “I want excellence out of this game. And you got to do the things that breed those results. So, I’m pretty much just using the game to make me the best person so that I can operate at the highest level within myself in every category – no matter what it is, no matter if it’s football, no matter if it’s business, no matter if it’s friendships.”
Camp is the perfect time for Hamlin to lean into that mentality.
“This is always my favorite time of the year, my favorite place to be, because the game just makes me my best self,” Hamlin said.
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