Hamlin said the triggers and PTSD symptoms that crowded his mind throughout the 2023 season are largely gone. He’s back to being himself as a player, for the most part, going full speed, without hesitation, on a mission to help the Bills win their fifth straight AFC East title.

And he’s taken a monumental step in his long, tough journey to redefine himself.

“People move on with their life and they think about it when they see me,” he said. “I can’t move on. It’s a part of me. I do still have flashbacks sometimes. And within my day-to-day, I definitely think about it. I’ve learned to appreciate those moments in my life.

“But when I play a game now, those three hours, I’m only thinking about football.”

I spoke with Hamlin multiple times over the course of his recovery. As he recapped that excruciatingly traumatizing moment of his life and the 21 months that have followed, joy somehow seemed to seep through his words. He told stories of how his parents, Nina and Mario, built a household on giving and gratitude despite not having much financially. It’s why that night in Cincinnati changed him, but didn’t break him.

It was a key game, with Hamlin’s Bills traveling to play the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday Night Football in Week 17 of the 2022 season. The AFC’s No. 1 playoff seed was on the line. Hamlin, a starting safety in his second pro season at the time, tackled Bengals receiver Tee Higgins after a first-quarter reception. Hamlin stood up for two seconds, then collapsed onto the field. Bills training staff quickly recognized he had an abnormal heart rhythm; CPR was started, and he was rapidly defibrillated. He did not have a pulse for a short period of time before being resuscitated.

The medical term for what happened is that he suffered cardiac arrest, followed by return of spontaneous circulation. Hamlin has his own simple way to explain it:

“I died on national TV in front of the whole world.”

There was a week of uncertainty as to whether Damar would live, if he could have a normal life and if he could eventually play the game he loved again.

To Hamlin, it wasn’t a question — within days of regaining his mental faculties and the ability to speak, he decided to return to football. That was not easy for those around him who spent days prayerfully waiting for his recovery in the hospital, particularly his parents.

Now, though, they simply beam with joy at the inspiration their son has become, for them and for millions more across the world.

“I watch him now the same way I did in little league football. We don’t live in fear,” Mario Hamlin, Damar’s father, told me on Monday. “Can’t disrespect the blessing. Some morals people stand on. This is one of them. His preparation and work to get back earned him this moment of glory.”

In April 2023, Hamlin was cleared for all football activities. He made the Bills’ roster that year primarily as a special teams player, battling mentally to clear hurdles.

Then, this past spring, Hamlin told Bills general manager Brandon Beane that, despite the competition Beane had brought in at the safety position — notably, second-round pick Cole Bishop and sixth-year pro Mike Edwards — he would win a starting job. No hesitation, zero doubt. Bishop and Edwards were sidelined by injuries. Hamlin, meanwhile, proceeded to earn the Bills’ trust with the best training camp of his pro career, developing good chemistry with fellow starter Taylor Rapp.

On Sept. 4, 611 days after he nearly died and was resuscitated on that field in Cincinnati, Hamlin was named a starting safety again by Bills head coach Sean McDermott. He played all 61 defensive snaps in the Bills’ Week 1 comeback win over the Cardinals, notching four tackles and allowing only one catch for 7 yards as the nearest defender. He was involved in the final deep pass breakup that sealed the win.

“What else can’t this young man do? What an accomplishment,” McDermott said after Hamlin was named a starter. “We’re just extremely proud and full of gratitude to watch him go through what he’s gone through and where he is now.”

As the Bills prepare to play the speedy Miami Dolphins in a prime-time setting Thursday night, Hamlin knows his story will be revisited in front of the world. He told me he’s heard social media trolls who question his playing ability or mockingly call him a clone. He said he often fights the urge to snap back at them and decides instead to soak in the outpouring of love he’s received from so many more.

“I hope people understand, I come from nothing. So when you see me receive blessings, please clap your hands,” Hamlin told me. “I’ve beaten statistics since I was a kid. I was not supposed to be here before the cardiac arrest. It’s all hard work.”