Josh Allen Defends Tee Higgins After Collision With Damar Hamlin

Thursday brought about good news on the Damar Hamlin recovery front, with the Bills tweeting that Hamlin has made “remarkable improvement” since his scary on-field collapse during Monday night’s game against the Bengals. Buffalo coach Sean McDermott and quarterback Josh Allen each addressed the media on Thursday, detailing the emotional and mental challenges the team and community have face in the wake of Monday’s harrowing events.

At the conclusion of his time speaking with reporters, Allen punctuated his session with a show of support for Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins. Higgins was the ball carrier on the play in which Hamlin made the tackle and subsequently collapsed, and has since received backlash online.

“I do want to say one more thing: I haven’t reached out to Tee [Higgins]. I saw some stuff on Twitter. People should not be attacking him, whatsoever, and I’m glad that Damar’s family came out and said that,” Allen said. “Hopefully, he found some relief today because, again, 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.”

Hamlin’s family also spoke out in defense of Higgins earlier in the week via Hamlin’s marketing rep and close friend, Jordon Rooney. Higgins also spoke to the media on Thursday for the first time since Monday’s game, saying that he did not immediately realize the severity of the situation after making contact with Hamlin.

“It was hard,” Higgins said, via Fox 19 Now Cincinnati. “Obviously wasn’t in a good place to play the rest of that game, so I’m kind of glad that we chose not to play.”

Higgins also got an opportunity to speak with Hamlin’s mother, who offered him words of encouragement.

“It was just telling me that she’s thinking of me, praying for me and things like that,” Higgins said. “She’s telling me that he’s O.K. All the good, positive stuff. It feels good to know that he’s O.K., that he’s doing better.”