Buffalo Bills players and staff are still processing what they witnessed Monday night when safety Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest and collapsed on the field mid-game against the Cincinnati Bengals, according to a source within the team.
The Bills didn’t land in Buffalo until 3:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday after they watched their teammate need to have his heartbeat restored on the field.
“Everyone is exhausted,” the source told CNN.
It comes on top of a series of difficult situations faced by the team, including having to deal with the mass shooting which killed 10 people and wounded three at a Buffalo grocery store in May, the deaths of at least 39 people in Erie County, New York, due to the Buffalo blizzard, having their November home game moved to Detroit and getting stuck in Chicago during Christmas time, the source said.
As for Hamlin, the Bills are in a “wait-and-see mode,” including the team’s medical staff, the source said.
The Bills have not discussed any specific ways to help the family through this time as they are hoping there will be recovery, the source said.
The team is still determining how it will handle its typical, weekly media availability.
As of now, it is a day-to-day determination. “We will see what the appetite might be for anyone to speak,” the source added.
