CNN
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The NFL has experienced nothing quite like the last few days.
After Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest and was rushed to the hospital, Cincinnati Bengals fans embraced their Buffalo Bills counterparts in the Paycor Stadium, men and women broke into tears, while others prayed.
Hour-by-hour, day-by-day, the emotion and concern for Hamlin’s health swelled like an ocean – the players and coaches of 32 teams, as well as NFL fans, anxiously waiting for any updates on the Bills safety’s wellbeing.
After watching the frightening event unfold, Colts rookie safety Rodney Thomas II drove from Indianapolis to Cincinnati to see his friend Hamlin. Meanwhile, NFL fans held vigils outside the University of Cincinnati Medical Center where Hamlin was sedated and intubated in the ICU.
After arriving, Thomas held his friend’s hand and talked to him.
“I know he could hear me,” said Thomas of Hamlin, whom he had met at Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh, where the two were teammates and became close friends.
“Even if he couldn’t hear me, it didn’t matter. I said what I had to say.”
Michael Addis, professor in the department of psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, told CNN Sports that what we’ve witnessed over the last few days shows the sport’s evolution, a development he attributes to changing views of masculinity where men are allowed to “experience emotional vulnerability.”
“I think it’s a sign that we’re better prepared than we were a quarter of a century ago to acknowledge emotional and physical health problems in men because, of course, all that sort of traditional laws of masculinity teach us to hide that,” said Addis, who is an expert in men’s depression.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen told reporters on Thursday that the Buffalo players had been providing plenty of emotional support to each other.
“We’ve had some very open and honest and deep talks,” said Allen. “Some unbelievable, this sounds weird, but some embraces as men, just hugging somebody and actually just leaning into them. There’s been a lot of that going around and you need every bit of it, you really do.
“I think the fact that we just keep hearing good news…
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