Ben baby | ESPN1 Nov. 2023, 7:00 p.m. ETLectura: 9 min.
NFL: El Top 10 de Ivis Aburto – Semana 8
The Bengals are back! And although their record is a reminder of their poor start to the season, their performance places them as one of the best teams in the AFC.
CINCINNATI — As doctors worked a few feet from an ambulance — and players knelt, cried and waited with everyone else inside Paycor Stadium — the wide receiver of the Cincinnati Bengals Tyler Boyd just wanted to get closer.
In the first quarter of last January’s game between the Buffalo Bills and the Bengals, Buffalo safety Damar Hamlin fell to the turf after tackling Cincinnati wide receiver Tee Higgins.
Medical staff performed chest compressions to resuscitate Hamlin, whose heart stopped after cardiac arrest. For Boyd, this was not just another player. He considered Hamlin a brother.
Boyd continued to struggle to get closer as medical personnel worked on Hamlin and Bills players stood nearby. As Bengals coach Zac Taylor watched Boyd’s efforts to reach out to Hamlin, he felt a deeper connection.
“TB, do you know him?” Taylor said.
“Yeah, that’s my guy,” Boyd said.
Over the past 10 years, Hamlin has gone from admiring Boyd from afar as one of the best players in the greater Pittsburgh area, to following in his college footsteps at the University of Pittsburgh and being drafted into the NFL. During that process, their relationship evolved from a mentorship to a friendship.
That sense of brotherhood between Boyd and Hamlin has extended off the field and has helped cultivate relationships with other members of the Bengals, including Higgins. Hamlin was part of a group that included Boyd, Higgins and Cincinnati catcher Ja’Marr Chase who traveled to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico in July.
What happened to Hamlin that January night was never discussed during the trip. Instead, Hamlin enjoyed the camaraderie with the group and one of the people closest to him.
“The same reason I spend time with him, they spend time with him,” Hamlin said of Boyd. “I don’t call a lot of people my big brother. I don’t call anyone my big brother. He’s someone I really consider a big brother.”
Bengals receiver Tyler Boyd, WEARING a Damar Hamlin jersey in support of the Bills safety after he nearly died during an MNF game between the teams in January 2023, has played a role in Hamlin’s life for a long time.AP Photo/Emilee Chinn
THE FIRST TIME Damar Hamlin saw Tyler Boyd was when Boyd was on the football field.
When Hamlin was a freshman at Central Catholic in Pittsburgh, he watched his hometown Sto-Rox High School take on Boyd and Clairton High in a regional playoff game.
“He was the guy to watch,” Hamlin recently told ESPN. “He was the first one who really set an example in the city for my generation coming up. So, in the minor leagues you heard about Tyler Boyd.”
Boyd, 28, is three years older than Hamlin and had already left Pitt for the NFL when Hamlin decided to play there. But when Hamlin signed with the Carolina Panthers, he said he wanted to absorb all the knowledge he could as he went from being the top prospect in the state of Pennsylvania to an NFL contender.
“Damar will ask you a lot of questions to improve: ‘What do I have to do? What can I do?’ said Chris LaSala, Pitt associate athletic director, who has been with the program for 27 years. “And Tyler was an amazing guy for us here at Pitt.”
Boyd was receptive to sharing tricks of the trade, especially with a guy from his hometown. Clairton is located 20 miles southeast of McKees Rocks, where Hamlin is from. Beyond Hamlin’s football ability and his willingness to improve, Boyd appreciated the way Hamlin carried himself.
“Loyalty is one of the most important things to me when I see a person, find out what they are like and act that way,” Boyd told ESPN last month. “He handled business the right way, man.”
KK Mosley-Smith, one of Boyd’s closest friends who grew up on Pittsburgh’s east side, said that once someone has earned Boyd’s trust and a bond is formed, that feeling is reciprocal.
“They are [sentido de] brotherhood is tremendous,” Mosley-Smith said. “He is the anchor of a lot of things. He is the anchor of a lot of people.”
Damar Hamlin miraculously returned to the Bills, making their 53-man roster in August and seeing his first regular-season action on Oct. 1 against the Dolphins in Orchard Park, New York.AP Photo/Adrian Kraus
AFTER A RECORD career at Pitt, the Bengals selected Boyd in the second round of the 2016 draft. Despite his professional status, he made it a point to maintain ties to his hometown.
With the exception of his rookie year and the COVID-19 pandemic, he has hosted a free football camp for kids in the greater Pittsburgh area. Hamlin has been a regular volunteer, helping with drills and even accompanying his younger brother, Damir, before he was old enough to participate.
Boyd would also return to Pitt and mentor Damar and the younger players on the team.
“TB would always come back, explaining how (the NFL) works,” Mosley-Smith said. “Just saying what it takes to get there and just being a big brother. And that created a bond between the two of us.”
That relationship deepened during the pandemic, Hamlin said.
“We spent our entire COVID session together,” he told ESPN. “Work out together every day. Have fun together. From there, we kind of stayed together. We spent a lot of time together during the offseason.”
That has remained constant even after Hamlin’s cardiac arrest raised his profile. Boyd was with Hamlin when they celebrated Damir’s eighth birthday earlier this year. When Boyd and Hamlin had overlapping football camps this summer, they still fulfilled their mutual obligations and participated in each other’s.
“Even though they both had a lot going on that weekend and their own events, they still took the time to be present at each other’s events,” said Boyd’s mother, Tonya Payne, who organizes and coordinates his annual camp.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN Boyd and Hamlin has created new, stronger bonds with a couple of Boyd’s teammates.
In 2022, Tee Higgins traveled to Pittsburgh to volunteer at Camp Boyd. It was the first time one of his Bengals teammates participated. It was also the first time Hamlin and Higgins met.
The two players had a superficial relationship previously. The two were familiar with each other from their college days, with Higgins’ Clemson and Hamlin’s Pitt facing off in the ACC Conference. After Boyd’s day camp ended, Hamlin, Higgins and Boyd hung out.
“When I met him, he was a great guy,” Higgins said in January. “You know, big smile, ‘What’s up, bro? How you doing?'”
Payne said the images of Boyd, Higgins and Hamlin with the participants created memories the children would never forget.
“Just being able to see them gives kids a memory that will last a lifetime,” Payne said. “Because it’s like, ‘I’m not just with one NFL star, I’m with three.'”
Higgins’ memories of Hamlin in the summer of 2022 came back to him after his collision with Hamlin in January. Higgins said the play didn’t involve a random opponent but someone he actually knew.
As Higgins struggled with his role in the play, Hamlin’s mother, Nina, approached Higgins and let him know it wasn’t his fault.
“Just telling me he’s thinking about me, praying for me and stuff like that,” Higgins said days after the incident. “Telling me he’s okay.”
Higgins and Hamlin have stayed in touch, checking in on each other or responding to something funny on Instagram the other posted. And although months have passed and Hamlin has returned to playing for the Bills, the recovery he has made did not go unnoticed by Higgins.
“Things like that, what happened to him doesn’t usually happen, you know what I’m saying?” Higgins recently said quietly. “It’s a miracle what happened.”
Seconds before the collision that will forever unite Bills safety Damar Hamlin and Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins.Dylan Buell/Getty Images
JA’MARR CHASE WAS training in Austin, Texas, ahead of the upcoming season when Boyd contacted him. It was a trip to Cabo, a final getaway before the Bengals reported to Cincinnati for training camp.
Chase and Higgins didn’t know the trip would include Hamlin. Mosley-Smith and a couple of other people also came. Boyd was the common link that connected everyone.
The group enjoyed ATV rides, boat rides, and a barbecue dinner, among other convivial activities during their time together. They all agreed that there was no need to mention the moment that would also bring them together forever.
“That was the first time I hung out with him,” Chase said. “We were happy to see him play football again and, you know, be the same person that he’s back to being now.”
A lot has happened since that night nine months ago. Boyd and the Bengals eliminated the Bills in the divisional round of the AFC playoffs. That was also the first game Hamlin attended since his injury. This season, Hamlin has played in one game and has been a healthy inactive in the team’s other seven games as he continues to be a depth player for Buffalo’s defense.
While Boyd has been careful not to mention that heartbreaking night, he knows Sunday’s game will bring those memories to the forefront.
“It’s going to be very inspiring,” Boyd said. “We’re playing exactly where we left off. We’re playing at home. I know the fans are going to cheer it on.
“It’ll be a bigger feeling just to be able to compete against him in a full game. That’s what we wanted. We always talked about it.”
Buffalo Bills reporter Alaina Getzenberg contributed to this story.
2023-11-02 00:00:00
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