Tee Higgins, the Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver who collided with Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin before Hamlin went into cardiac arrest on the field, made his first public comments regarding Hamlin.
The two men had known each other personally before, having attended Tyler Boyd’s annual football camp near Pittsburgh, ESPN noted.
“Obviously it’s been hard, just because you know I had something to do with the play [and] whatnot,” Higgins said, according to The Washington Post. “Everyone has been making me feel whole again. I talked to his mom and everything is OK, he’s doing good, so I’m in a good place right now.”
“And suddenly she’s telling me that he’s OK. And just all the positive stuff,” he continued. “I mean it feels good just knowing that he’s OK, he’s doing better, and it makes me feel better inside.”
The play before Hamlin collapsed came in the first quarter of the game Monday night, as Hamlin collapsed after tackling Higgins at the tail end of a 13-yard completion. Hamlin initially stood up, then collapsed. Higgins, who had not seen Hamlin stand up, initially thought Hamlin had flopped, then realized what was happening.
“Me being a football player, I’m thinking he just flopped, one of my guys bumped him,” Higgins recalled. “I just seen the fall. I looked again, and I seen what happened, and I just turned my head and trying not to think about it. So I knew it was something crazy and something tragic.”
Boyd, who has maintained contact with Higgins since Hamlin collapsed, criticized people who have blamed Higgins, saying, “Tee’s a human being, too. It could’ve flipped. It could’ve been Tee. It’s football, at the end of the day.”
Bills quarterback Josh Allen expressed similar sentiments, declaring, “I do want to say one more thing: I haven’t reached out to Tee. I hope that he got some relief today. I saw some stuff on Twitter. And people should not be attacking him whatsoever. And I’m glad that Damar’s family came out and said that. And hopefully, he found some relief today. Because that’s a football play. And I hope that he doesn’t hold that upon himself because there’s nothing else that he could have done in that situation.”
On Thursday, the Buffalo Bills released a statement on Hamlin’s progress, stating, “Per the physicians caring for Damar Hamlin at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Damar has shown remarkable improvement over the past 24 hours. While still critically ill, he has demonstrated that he appears to be neurologically intact. His lungs continue to heal, and he is making steady progress.”