Bears Cope with Damar Hamlin Situation

Many Bears players watched as a friend or former teammate with the Bills went down to the turf Monday, and joined the NFL coping Wednesday while supporting him.

Bears center Sam Mustipher felt like his teammates did upon seeing Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin go down to the turf in Cincinnati in cardiac arrest.

Mustipher may have expressed it better than others at Halas Hall who saw it happen on TV.

"Football is a brotherhood of men," Mustipher said. "The strong lead, the weak get left behind, but that's unlike anything any of those guys have ever experienced, anything I've ever experienced."

Hamlin went down during Monday night's game in Cincinnati and remains hospitalized there, with signs of improvement reported by the team on Wednesday.

Nine days earlier the Bears had faced the Bills in the icy Christmas Eve game at Soldier Field and Bears quarterback Nathan Peterman spoke then with Hamlin, his former Pitt teammate.

"He was a teammate of mine, he was a freshman when I was there as a senior," Peterman said. "I just talked to him two weeks ago when we played (Buffalo) after the game. So it was extremely, just sobering and crazy to see."

Peterman's words were those of praise for his former teammate.

"I just went up to him and said, 'Hey man, great to see you're doing well,' " he recalled. "I was proud of him. Him and Dane Jackson both. Pitt guys. They're very close together.

"That was the crazy part watching the replay. He falls down and Dane is sprinting right after him right away. It was crazy. Told him I was happy for him, proud of him and I'm praying he pulls through."

Players on different teams across the league have expressed similar feelings to those the Bears had when they saw it happening—it could easily be them in that situation.

"It put it in perspective, being more grateful for the play that you have," running back David Montgomery said. "Because if you're just looking at it, it just was a play. It was all legal on both sides.

"It was just a play, and it was unfortunate that it played out the way it did. It scares you more because you see a lot of things happening because some things go wrong where it's like a freakish accident. But that was just a routine play. And every play that you play is a routine play."

Football players are not generally thought of as being overly emotional except about trying to win on any given Sunday. They tend to hide any real emotions or feelings, but this situation made those apparent.

"The NFL's a fraternity," said coach Matt Eberflus. "These guys are close. We have a couple guys on our team who are close to him. Obviously you feel for him and his family. The guy's fighting for his life right now.

"Then they see that reflection in the mirror. I think that's a little bit frightening."

Mustipher teared up a bit when talking about what Hamlin's mother must have felt going through it in the ambulance on the way to the hospital with her son.

"I'm one of those guys where I don't like to talk about a lot of things with a lot of people," Mustipher said. "I really keep it internally. But my family understands that at the end of the day, this is my job, this is what I have to do.

"But they don't sign up for that. His mother didn't sign up for that. She thought she was going to watch her baby on Monday Night Football. That's what we dreamed about: Monday Night Football, prime-time game. They don't sign up for that."

It doesn't sour them on the game but makes them more aware of what those close to them are feeling when something like this happens.

"Being a parent, you know, that's tough, man," Mustipher said. "I can't imagine. I want my son to play football. I do. I love this game, I love what it's taught me, the life lessons, the responsibility, the accountability, the teamwork, and, you know, I can't imagine seeing my son out there like that. I know how my mom would feel. I know how my dad would feel. It's unfortunate, man."

Emotional reactions and mental health always become an issue when something like this happens. Montgomery admitted to feeling a bit different about practice.

"Yeah, I was kind of uneasy," he said. "It was just one of those things, you put yourself in the situation and understand that it could be you. It's definitely been on the forefront of my mind, because you know it hasn't even been three or four days yet.

"He's in there fighting for his life. So yeah, it's been on my mind since it happened. It’s going to be on my mind."

To help players with the mental aspect of it, coach Matt Eberflus said they talked about it on Wednesday with players. Board chairman George McCaskey  came and spoke with players. They had the team pastor lead prayers for Hamlin, as well.

"It's all going to be different, every person's different," Eberflus said. "And that's OK to be that way. We just said that we're here, we're supportive."

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