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Damar Hamlin’s father tells Bills players in ’emotional’ Zoom call that his son is making progress in hospital, as Buffalo ‘prepares for practice TODAY’, first time since his cardiac arrest on the field
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The Buffalo Bills received good news about the hospitalized safety of Damar Hamlin on Wednesday.
Returning to the team’s practice facility in Orchard Park for the first time since Hamlin went into cardiac arrest Monday night in Cincinnati, the Bills players participated in a Zoom call with Hamlin’s father, Mario, who he said his son was making progress.
“The team needed him,” a source said. ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
NFL Network reports that the Bills plan to practice Thursday for the first time since Monday’s game was postponed indefinitely. The team took a tour of the practice facility at Orchard Park on Wednesday.
Hamlin is pictured behind his mother, Nina, and father, Mario, when he played for Pitt
Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott kneels as Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin (3) is treated on the field following a first quarter collision against the Cincinnati Bengals at Paycor Stadium.
Another source told NFL Network’s Mike Giardi the call was “emotional” but provided some “calm” for the players in the midst of a difficult week.
“This is not easy,” the source told Giardi, adding that “they are doing this together.”
Spokesmen for Bills did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for more details about the call.
Hamlin remains sedated in the intensive care unit at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center after collapsing at Paycor Stadium during Monday’s Bills-Bengals game.
His marketing representative, Jordon Rooney, told The Associated Press that his client is moving in a “positive direction.”
“We all remain optimistic,” Rooney said.
Hamlin’s family has been overwhelmed with acts of kindness since his cardiac arrest, including more than $6 million in donations to the defensive back’s toy drive.
“They’re elated right now,” Rooney said of the Hamlin family. ‘Damar is still his first concern. But for them, they are always looking at how they can turn a somewhat worrisome situation into a good one. The recovery from this, for him and his family, will be amazing.”
Damar Hamlin pictured with her father, Mario, during his playing days at Pitt
Hamlin was revived by medics on the field at Paycor Stadium, but updates have been positive in the days since, with his ventilator usage reduced from 100 percent to 50 percent late on Tuesday.
ESPN spoke with Rooney outside the hospital in Cincinnati on Wednesday and broke the positive news that doctors were pleased with the progress he has made.
He added that “there’s no clarity right now, how long things are going to take, how things are going to go,” before clarifying that Hamlin is “still sedated and in critical condition in ICU.”
Rooney was also quick to correct widespread “misinformation” about the number of times Hamlin was resuscitated, after the player’s uncle told reporters it had happened twice, once at the stadium and once at the hospital.
It has now been revealed that there was only one revive, on the field of Paycor Stadium.
The Bills (12-3) host the New England Patriots on Sunday, and they may still have a chance to wrest the top seed in the AFC playoffs from the Kansas City Chiefs (13-3), depending on whether the NFL does or does not order last week’s game against Cincinnati to be completed. Kansas City has a tiebreaker over the Bills and can clinch the top seed and a first-round bye in the AFC playoffs if it beats the Raiders in Las Vegas on Saturday.
Buffalo Bills gather as an ambulance parks on the field while CPR is administered to Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin (3) after a play in the first quarter of the NFL Week 17 game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Buffalo Bills at Paycor Stadium in downtown Cincinnati. The game was suspended with a suspension in the first quarter after Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin (3) was taken away in an ambulance following a play.