On His Way to the NFL, Damar Hamlin Was Determined to Give Back

But Hamlin almost didn’t make it past freshman orientation.

On the ride home, Hamlin’s face was buried in his hands, hiding tears. He’d been told he’d have to cut his shoulder-length dreadlocks.

“He said, ‘Big Arch, I’m not going to Central Catholic,’” Brinza said. “I said, ‘Your dad told me I’ve got to take care of you. You’re going. You’re cutting your hair. That’s it.’ Nina, who’s unbelievable, said he’s going to Central Catholic. He’s cutting his hair.”

By the time Hamlin was a senior, in 2015, he’d become a leader of the defense, which called itself the Chain Gang. It was a team brimming with the talent of players who would go on to Penn State, Notre Dame, Clemson and Pittsburgh, about a dozen scholarship players in all.

All that talent didn’t matter when the Vikings lost to a nemesis, North Allegheny, late in September. The coaches sent the team home that night with a message: See you back here at 9 a.m. the next morning for practice.

When the coaches rolled in the next morning, coffee mugs in hand, the entire team was waiting for them on the field stretching. They’d arrived 90 minutes early because one player told them to — Hamlin.

Central Catholic did not lose another game, winning a state championship.

“To have that happen — it hasn’t happened since,” said Dave Fleming, the school’s longtime defensive coordinator. “It told you a lot about how Damar was going to proceed in the future, and be unrelenting on the tasks at hand that were important in his mind.”

By then, Hamlin could have gone to school almost anywhere. Ohio State, Penn State and Notre Dame all pursued him. Instead, he chose Pitt — whose campus is within walking distance of Central Catholic — so he could be close to his family, including his father, who was out of prison, and his younger brother, then a toddler.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/02/sports/football/who-is-damar-hamlin-bills.html