NFL: Tee Higgins speaks out for the first time since Damar Hamlin’s MNF collapse

Cincinnati Bengals receiver Tee Higgins has spoken for the first time since colliding with Bills safety Damar Hamlin, revealing he’s “in a good place right now” after hearing from Hamlin’s mother about his improves on thursday.

Higgins, 23, was involved in the hit that occurred just before Hamlin, 24, went into cardiac arrest during ESPN’s final regular season broadcast of Monday Night Football at Paycor Stadium. Since then, doctors have said that Hamlin is awake and has made “marked improvement” in the past 24 hours.

“Obviously it’s been tough, just because you know I had something to do with the play (and) all of that,” Higgins said in his first public comments since the Bills-Bengals game suspension. But “everyone has been making me feel whole again.” I talked to his mom and everything is fine, he’s fine, so I’m in a good place right now.

The 23-year-old Bengals receiver collided with Hamlin just before the latter went into cardiac arrest.

As of Thursday night, Hamlin is awake and making “marked improvement” in the hospital.

Higgins said Hamlin’s mother told him “she’s thinking about me and praying for me and things like that.”

‘And suddenly she tells me that he is fine. And all the positive things,’ the third-year wide receiver said. “I want to say that it feels good to know that he’s okay, that he’s doing better and it makes me feel better inside.”

Higgins said it took him a second or two after Monday night’s play to realize something was seriously wrong. Replays showed Hamlin got to his feet after taking Higgins down and a few seconds later fell backwards.

“Being a football player, I think he just flopped, one of my guys got over it,” Higgins said. I just saw the fall. I looked again, and I saw what happened, and I just turned my head and tried not to think about it. So I knew it was something crazy and something tragic.

At first, Higgins thought Hamlin had been ‘going down’ after their first-quarter collision.

Higgens learned “something tragic” had happened after seeing Hamlin stumble on the pitch again.

Medical personnel had to resuscitate Hamlin’s heart twice with CPR and defibrillation techniques. An ambulance arrived on the field and he was rushed to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

‘You know, it was hard [to see]’ Higgins said. ‘Obviously, [I] I wasn’t in a good place to play the rest of that game, so I’m glad we chose not to play.

Higgins’ Bengals teammate Tyler Boyd is a friend of Hamlin’s from the Pittsburgh area. Both played at the University of Pittsburgh. Boyd said he knew something was wrong when he tried to talk to Hamlin after the collapse.

The Bengals’ Tyler Boyd knew something was wrong when he tried to talk to Hamlin after the collapse

“I was trying to talk to him and he wasn’t giving me anything,” Boyd said. ‘And just seeing that, and then [I] he was just surprised. But I didn’t realize it yet, you know, because that’s a football play. But once everyone was coming, and he was getting a little serious.

“It touched me in a way where, man, you just can’t take things for granted. You know, regardless of who we’re playing against, that’s my brother, no matter what. You know, I grew up with him.

Higgins said it was an emotional release to be back practicing on Wednesday and Thursday. The Bills have also resumed practice, four days after Hamlin’s near-death scare.

The Bengals host the Baltimore Ravens in the final game of the regular season on Sunday.

“It’s hard to forget, but at the end of the day we are professional footballers,” he said. “We’ve got a job to do, and you just have to shift your focus and focus on the Ravens.”