Miles Sanders has known Damar Hamlin for close to a decade, the two friends since their high school days when the Eagles RB was a star at Woodland Hills HS in Churchill and the Bills DB played at Pittsburgh Central Catholic.
They were the two top two recruits in the Steel City area in the Class of 2016, and bonded over their loves of football and community.
“We all became friends just competing with each other; did a lot of 7-on-7’s, went to camps together, went on school visits together, everything you can think of,” Sanders told the media on Friday. “It wasn’t hard becoming friends when you were rivals. Even though I tell him all the time, they cheated. They were the only (high school) that recruited.”
Sanders was scared that he lost his friend on Monday night, when Hamlin collapsed on the field in Cincinnati during Monday Night Football, but Hamlin has continued to improve throughout the week, and with his breathing tube out, has begun speaking to friends, family, and teammates via FaceTime.
Sanders said he and Hamlin, who usually speak almost every day, finally connected via FaceTime on Friday, and were able to share a smile.
“I told him, ‘You scared me, bro. You scared me. For real,’” Sanders said. “I said, ‘You’re the most famous person in the world,’ and he laughed and said, ‘Yeah, for the wrong reason.’ But I told him he doesn’t know how blessed he is.”
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Sanders wasn’t watching Monday night, but said that when he heard about Hamlin collapsing, he “couldn’t even process it” and debated going to Cincinnati to see Hamlin in the hospital.
Four days later, he finally saw him, and said his good friend was in good spirits.
“It’s a miracle,” Sanders said. “I don’t know any other word for it. It scared me. It scared everybody else. But for me, being so close to him, it scared the (expletive) out of me, I’m not going to lie. I’m still a little shook up.”
Sanders and Hamlin were both four-star recruits, and while Sanders ended up as a Mr. Football and followed the previous year’s winner, Saquon Barkley, to Penn State, Hamlin chose to stay home and attend Pitt, a story that has made the rounds and shown what kind of man Hamlin is.
The Eagles’ RB1 has known that for a lot longer, though.
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“We’re kind of similar, that’s why we clicked so much,” Sanders said of Hamlin. “We’re always on the same page, we do a lot of stuff in the community. He’s one of those guys I never had to worry about; his head is always right, he’s got both his parents in his life and a little brother he loves to death, and he does everything for his family. He’s very selfless and I respect him a lot as a person, not just as a football player but as a person and a friend.”
A couple years back, the two men were two of the five co-founders of the Pittsburgh to Pros camp, a free summer youth football camp in the area, and Sanders is also proud of the work Hamlin has done with his Chasing M’s Foundation, which provides toys for underprivileged kids, and became a viral phenomenon in the wake of Hamlin’s emergency – a GoFundMe he started in 2020 for the foundation has raised nearly $8 million since late Monday night.
It has been a difficult and “not fun” week for Sanders, dealing with his friend’s fight for life alongside preparing for a crucial Week 18 matchup with the Giants, but he said that “everybody came up to me to make sure I’m good,” and he’s ready for Sunday without any reservations about stepping on the field.
“We’ll still go out there Sunday and play, and I just know I’m representing him until he gets back and ready to play, hopefully,” Sanders said. “We put our life on the line for this stuff and certain stuff you can’t think about. But it’s definitely something that’s eye-opening. You play your heart out and people don’t really know what you go through. I’m just happy he’s doing better, it’s just a blessing.”
Happy, and thankful for the medical personnel at Paycor Stadium and University of Cincinnati Medical Center who saved his friend’s life.
“I’d love to reach out to the medical people, whoever was there on site to help my boy,” Sanders said. “Man, the whole world was scared, but his family and his friends, I was terrified. I want to find every one of them and shake their hand and thank them. They saved his life.”