Damar Hamlin’s terrifying collapse on Monday Night Football between the Bills and Bengals has left the sports world with heavy hearts the past twenty-four hours.
He’s currently in a coma at a hospital in Cincinnati following his cardiac arrest surrounded by friends and family.
Andrew Fillipponi and Chris Mueller of 93.7 The Fan’s PM team, had a chance to speak with close friend Jordan Rooney, who is at the hospital with Hamlin, about an update and the character of Damar.
The main takeaway is that Damar is still fighting and that the next 24 hours are going to be crucial depending on how he responds to tests being run.
“He needs to heal and there’s not a timeline for that, just a matter of what his healing journey looks like,” explained Rooney.
Rooney was confident in Hamlin’s ability to recover though based on the man he knows and the spirit he has.
Their relationship started five years ago when Hamlin was at Pitt and he wanted to intern with Rooney at a marketing agency.
Hamlin was a high-profile division 1 football player whose interest was building his own brand, he spent summer interning with Rooney and they got close from there.
“He became a football player because of the platform he wanted to build, everything he does is about having an impact in Pittsburgh, he’s very genuine with everything he does.”
A very family oriented man, Hamlin stayed in Pittsburgh to be close to his family and 2 year old brother he wanted to be active in his life. In highschool, he worked around the clock at his mother’s cleaning business.
He remained tied to Pittsburgh with his McKees Rocks toy drive he started back in 2020, which has now raised over $5 million in lue of his recent injury.
“This is someone who truly just gives to other people, no matter how he’s feeling that day,” Rooney says, “he’ll go out of his way to make people feel happy, make people feel welcome.”