Every year around this time, the sports calendar is a little quiet. The NFL and NHL are still a few months away from starting, the NBA just wrapped up a little over a month ago, and MLB is in the All-Star Break. So every year during the downtime in the sports world, ESPN puts on the ESPY Awards to celebrate the best teams, games, moments, and players over the last 12 months. The night is filled with awesome highlights and incredible speeches from some of the best in the sports world. And without question one of the biggest moments (and also one of the scariest moments as well) of the year surrounded Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin.
For those who may not remember, on January 2nd of this year, Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest during a week 16 game against the Cincinnati Bengals. After making a tackle, Hamlin stood up but immediately collapsed without warning. The Buffalo Bills training staff went to work on seeing what was wrong with Hamlin. It quickly turned into a life-saving mission and Midwest City native and former OSU graduate Denny Kellington started performing CPR on Hamlin. The CPR performed by Kellington is a major reason why Hamlin is alive today.
Hamlin was taken to the hospital and has since recovered from suffering cardiac arrest. Hamlin was in attendance for Wednesday night’s ESPYS and was even the presenter of the Pat Tillman award for service which was given to the Buffalo Bills training staff for their work that night. Hamlin was very emotional as one might expect during the presentation. Head athletic trainer Nate Breske accepted the award and gave the speech, but Kellington was there right behind him along with his fellow staffers.
The presentation and speech were easily one of the highlights of the night and it wouldn’t have been possible without the incredibly quick thinking of Denny Kellington. Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott has credited Kellington with saving Hamlin’s life, and the NFL community even took notice. Kellington even received an official 5th place vote for MVP last season!
This moment. 🫶
Damar Hamlin was moved to tears introducing the Bills training staff who saved his life as they were honored with the Pat Tillman Award for Service at the @ESPYS. pic.twitter.com/uxbo1IcfYF
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) July 13, 2023
