Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin found his passion advocating for youth safety in sports.
until he was revived by a fast-acting medical team. The Buffalo Bills safety spent more than a week in the hospital and was diagnosed with. “It was assumed that I wouldn’t be able to go back and wouldn’t be able to play,” he says.
But while watching games from his hospital bed the following weekend, Hamlin says he knew he wasn't done with football. “I knew my talent level, where I was in my career, and I knew the trajectory of where I could go.”What he didn't immediately foresee was his next act. After Hamlin was cleared by doctors to return to the NFL several months later, he decided he didn’t want to just come back as a safety on the field. “Earlier on in the hospital, I was at a crossroads where I really wanted to just focus on my personal health and focus on just enjoying experience of being able to live,” he says. “But I knew that I had an opportunity to use my platform to inspire others.” He decided to revamp the philanthropic organization he had created during his time at the University of Pittsburgh: the Chasing M’s Foundation, which he'd started to help support his mother’s daycare center and provide toys for children. Following his, donations flooded the foundation, and Hamlin knew it was a chance to broaden the group's reach and impact. Now, his goal is to help make the same high-level care and resources he received on the field available to young athletes who might go through the same experience. “Sudden cardiac arrest, what happened to me, is the leading cause of death in youth sports,” he says. Chasing M’s, which refers to Chasing Millions to encourage kids to pursue their dreams, has given away nearly $1 million worth of automated external defibrillators, the device that saved Hamlin’s life, to schools, communities, and other groups. Hamlin's new role wasn't a given. He says it was a mental challenge to help educate people about CPR, since it forced him to relive his own near-death experience. “It’s traumatic just to see a CPR instruction dummy on the ground,” he says. “It’s just triggering; it reminds me of the worst things of that moment. But I knew that I was helping to save lives.”, which advocates for all 50 states to put specific steps in place to prevent and treat sudden cardiac arrest among high school students. These include implementing emergency plans to follow in case a student experiences a heart event, as well as requiring automated external defibrillators to be accessible wherever students train or compete. Smart Heart also works to ensure that every coach and trainer is trained in CPR and in the use of external defibrillators. “Everyone in the league office has truly been in support of me and others too in staying proactive to find ways they can be better for us as players," Hamlin says, "and I’m super excited to be the bridge between the NFL headquarters and the players.” Hamlin still plays for the Buffalo Bills and was a special teams player in 2025 before a pectoral injury placed him on injury reserve. He’s broadened his heart-health advocacy work as the ambassador for Abbott’s HeartMates, a community of survivors of heart conditions who provide peer support and help one another navigate living with their conditions. In his advocacy work, Hamlin doesn't shy away from sharing his harrowing experience with young athletes and their families. “I wouldn’t blame them,” he says of parents who might hesitate to let their children play football. “But I will also say that fear is a choice...I think there's a lot of other great things that you learn through sports. It's about doing it safely and making sure that the necessary things are in place.”
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