DAYTON — Bam Bradley, a teammate of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin at the University of Pittsburgh, said, “it warmed my heart to see that he was improving and that his mom and dad were feeling good about what the doctors were telling them about his condition.”
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Bradley, who lives in the Dayton area and played for Trotwood-Madison before joining the Pitt Panthers on a football scholarship, describes Hamlin as a young man who loves family first and puts himself second.
Hamlin “has shown remarkable improvement over the past 24 hours” after collapsing on the field during Monday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Paycor Stadium.
“While still critically ill, he has demonstrated that he appears to be neurologically intact,” the Bills organization said in a statement. “His lungs continue to heal and he is making steady progress.”
An update we were all hoping for. ❤️💙
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) January 5, 2023
Hamlin collapsed on the field after tackling Bengals receiver Tee Higgins in the first quarter. The Bills said Hamlin, 24, suffered a cardiac arrest. He remains in critical condition, in the Intensive Care Unit, at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Family members have asked the public to keep him in their prayers.
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Bradley is now a free agent. He was signed in May 2017 by the Baltimore Ravens as an undrafted rookie. Unfortunately, his maiden season at linebacker was cut short by an torn ACL. The Ravens released him in March 2019.
Thursday night, he told News Center 7′s Brandon Lewis he was a senior when he and Hamlin played together at Pitt.
Bradley visited Hamlin and his parents Wednesday at UC Medical Center and shared that when he spoke with Hamlin’s father, “his dad said, ‘I already know the first thing he’s going to say is ‘did we win?’ and that’s the first thing that [Hamlin] wrote on that paper.
“So it really made me happy and has eased my mind a whole lot to know that his mind is back,” Bradley said.
Bradley was supposed to be at Paycor Stadium on Monday night, but missed being there and seeing the game on TV because he was at work. People began sending him Tweets that showed the freak accident and the aftermath.
“It was crazy for me to watch that” on Twitter, Bradley said, recalling his own career on the gridiron that stretched from grade school to college and the NFL. “I’ve never seen anything like that on a football field.
“My stomach was uneasy for the next two days,” Bradley said.
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