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NFL Star Damar Hamlin In Critical Condition After Collapsing Mid-Game. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired January 03, 2023 - 01:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[01:02:26]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm John Berman. It is just after 1:00 a.m. on the east coast. 10:00 p.m. on the west. This is CNN's special breaking news coverage. Because of what happened on Monday Night Football. Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin is in critical condition after collapsing following a collision during the first quarter of tonight's game between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals.

Hamlin fell on his back just for moments after getting up. He tackled the Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins, stood up, but then collapsed. Buffalo Bill's team trainers got to Hamlet within 10 seconds after he collapsed. An ambulance was brought onto the field, and he was administered CPR and also, we are told, defibrillators, which indicates possibly, and again, we don't have any specific information, but possibly that it has something to do with his heart. That is why you do CPR and the defibrillator.

We have a lot to get to this hour. Joining me now is CNN contributor Bob Costas, who's on the phone, and CNN sports anchor Coy Wire. Coy, I do want to start with you because you were just part of this NFL conference call where they made clear they don't have any specific updates on Damar Hamlin's medical condition, which is something I think we are all waiting for. But they did provide some new information. Coy what did they tell you?

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes, the call happened just at the stroke of midnight, Eastern Time, John. They gave a couple of logistical updates, one being that the team, Buffalo Bills, they will travel back to Buffalo tonight. They were informed just before midnight that was going to be the case, though a handful of players were choosing to stay in Cincinnati to be at the hospital with their teammate, with their brother, Damar Hamlin.

The other issue was the question of when will this game resume? And they have not had any communication or conversation about that will happen at a later time. They did discuss the emergency action plan that went into play, something that they rehearsed, something that they talk about with both head coaches before every game.

Unfortunately, tonight that had to go into play. And what happens as soon as they noticed that Damar Hamlin fell to the ground, it kicked in the constant communication between Troy Vincent, the Executive Vice President of football operations. He's on the phone with the commissioner, Roger Goodell, he's with the head of the players union. He's on with both head coaches. They're talking, getting live updates from the medical team about what is happening.

[01:05:00]

And it came to a point, John, where Troy Vincent told the coaches, Sean McDermott for the Buffalo Bills, Zac Taylor for the Cincinnati Bengals to go into their locker room with their teams assess the situation. Both head coaches came to the conclusion that what they saw was their players, their team, were too traumatized, but by what they had just witnessed on that field. And those coaches, they made an unprecedented, to my knowledge, decision to stop this game. And it's the correct decision.

Damar Hamlin is a young man. He's second year in the league. He's drafted in the 6th round out of Pittsburgh. He's playing Monday Night Football, feeling like he's on top of the world. This was a huge game, huge playoff implications, and he gets this traumatic injury that opens up scars for me personally. I'm a former safety for the Buffalo Bills. I played six seasons there. I had a teammate of mine, Kevin Everett, who was paralyzed on the field there in Buffalo with us.

I had a teammate in college when I was playing with Stanford University. We were playing against the Washington Huskies. My teammate hit their safety, and Curtis Williams, number 25, he was paralyzed from the waist down, and two years later he died, passed away from complications from that paralysis.

These players are witnessing things that will haunt them. You know, it gets me worked up thinking about some of the things that I experienced. I'm proud as a former player that the NFL, that those two head coaches did make the decision to call this game off. I think that's a huge step in the right direction. We've never seen that before.

So now, for the first time, we're seeing perhaps the most impactful moment where those words are not hollow. They are taking the health of these players seriously.

So to me, that's a big moment. I'm praying for Damar Hamlin and his mother, his family. I'm praying for teammates because they're more like brothers. You spend more time with your teammate during a season than you do with your own spouse or your own family. I'm also praying for Tee Higgins, the player who made contact with him, my teammate in college, Carrie Carter, who made contact with the young man who passed away. That haunted him for a long time.

So there's a lot of emotion. There's a lot of -- this is a tough situation, and we can only hope and pray that Damar Hamlin will be OK and he'll get a full and speedy recovery job.

BERMAN: Coy Wire, you're wearing your Buffalo Bills jacket. The emblem is on your chest, but I think your heart is on your sleeve today. We can see how hard this is for you to see what happened on the field, because you've been on that field, you've been in these situations. And, yes, it's a game, and yes, you're all superstar athletes, but you're human beings. And all these human beings saw this happen before their eyes to someone they care about. They care a lot about.

Bob Costas, I want to bring you into this discussion and again, I want to be clear. What we're all concerned about and what we all want to know is about Damar Hamlin's condition. And we just don't have any information about that at this time other than we're told he's in critical condition. He's in the University of Cincinnati Hospital, which is one of the great facilities in this country. He's in a terrific place to get the best care, surrounded by loved ones. We know his mother was at the game. Some of his teammates have gone by to the hospital. We're not sure if they're still there.

But, Bob, to the moment that Coy is talking about the football side of it, which admittedly is the less important side to see a game postponed like this, it isn't something we've seen before. This is a moment.

BOB COSTAS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: No, we've seen entire slates of games postponed, for example, after 9/11. But generally speaking, football is not comparable to baseball where you can play a double header where you play almost every day, so there's a rain out or some other circumstance necessitates a postponement you play the next day.

Football isn't like that. The Bills have gone back to Buffalo. As Coy was just saying, there's playoffs implications. Both these teams are going to be in the playoffs, but the seeding and this year again, you have to stipulate this as we talk about the football side, it's very secondary, but since it is part of the story here, there's only one by now.

In each conference, seven teams make the playoffs, but only the number one seed gets a by and doesn't have to play in the first round and is assured home field advantage in every game they play as long as they don't lose.

So there is a football consideration. But how do you reschedule a football game when there will be two more to play? Next week is the final weekend of the season and then the playoffs start right after that. These two teams now have two teams left to play -- two games left to play while everybody else in the league has only one. So, how do you play this game and not have a domino effect where these two teams find themselves playing three or four days apart heading into the playoffs, which doesn't seem fair.

[01:10:12]

BERMAN: No, and I'm sure the NFL is thinking about that because they have to. But I also appreciate what they've been saying publicly, which is just that's not their concern tonight. Their primary concern, their primary concern along with everyone else is Damar Hamlin's health.

And Coy, as we've been hearing, the Bills are on their way back. The team plane is going back to Buffalo from Cincinnati. Some players will stay behind to be with their friend Damar Hamlin, but what do you think that's got to be like to get onto that plane to leave, to go back to Buffalo?

WIRE: I remember when I played there with Buffalo, one of my six seasons, it was 2007. I mentioned my teammate who was paralyzed, Kevin Everett, he was a teammate, tight end rather from the University of Miami. And we continued to play that game somehow try to put the blinders on and have that next snap mentality and power through the game. And then I just remembered I wanted to go home and call my parents and be there with my wife and hug her extra tight.

You know, it's going to be a very difficult plane ride home for those players. A lot of them probably won't sleep tonight because we saw it happen on TV, John. We saw replays. But you don't see what these players and coaches are seeing when you're there on the field and you're standing just feet away from your teammate. I've seen eyes rolling back in heads. I've seen arms and hands quivering and shaking uncontrollably. I've heard noises coming from teammates that you just don't want to hear.

So, it's going to be really tough for those guys tonight and for the rest of the season praying for Damar Hamlin that he will be OK and that the team can rally around him and his family and give them all the support they need. Maybe he'll be back on the field, on the sidelines with them as they continue to play the rest of the season.

BERMAN: Let's hope. And we were just looking at some of the footage from after it happened on the field, the players hugging each other, the players from both teams hugging each other, because there's no team in this. There's just a collection of people going through this incredibly emotional moment. That's the Bills coach Sean McDermott there, quarterback Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs also there.

It's got to be really hard for all of them. Coy standby, if you will, and Bob, stick around too. We now have with us Adam Benigni, who's the sports director of Buffalo television station WGRZ, who was at the game. Thank you so much for being with us.

And look, let me just first ask you because what everyone is so desperate for at this point is any kind of information about Damar Hamlin and his condition, anything you're hearing from your sources or people within the team.

ADAM BENIGNI, SPORTS DIRECTOR, WGRZ: It is -- John, it is kind of locked down on this. I saw what his agent had told me in Rapaport, I believe, which was just to kind of pray for him that there would be no further update tonight. There was a marketing associate of his that had tweeted something to the effect that his vitals were improving and that he was being intubated.

So there was some hope in connection to that tweet. But then a spokesperson from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center had said there'd be no further update tonight.

So I can tell you, I'm still at the stadium right now in the media room down here. And the buses left, I believe, at 12:24 a.m. was the time they rolled out of here and they freed up the tunnel near the locker room. And incredibly emotional scene. I was very moved by listening to Coy Wire, who I had the pleasure of covering during his time with the Buffalo Bills and got to know Coy a little bit back during his NFL career. Complete and total class act, as you well know.

And to hear his description of that, I was able to see the faces of the Bills players, not only on the field, but we all went down to the locker room from the press box and were kind of in the initial moments, just as the ambulance had left and taken to Damar to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, there was kind of the chaos of the head coaches, team, the GMs, Brandon Bean, Sean McDermott. Bill's ownership was there as well, and the officials, and obviously the conference was taking place with the National Football League and the state from the league suspending the game came out a short time later.

[01:15:05]

But to see some of the faces of the players later in the evening just kind of, you know, like so many others, in shock and to hear Coy's description of what it's like to go through that as a player just adds to the emotion and helps put in perspective the emotions that so many have got to be feeling here today tonight.

BERMAN: Adam, it is comforting to hear from you that you are a co- member of the Coy Wire fan club. Coy is just one of the best and it's been so great to hear from him tonight on this.

Adam, if you will, and I think this is something we haven't done quite enough as we've been all witnessing this tonight. Tell us about Damar Hamlin, about who he is, not just the player, but maybe the man.

BENIGNI: To the extent I've been able to get to know him. You know, 2021 6th round pick out of Pittsburgh, you know, with some injuries and that thing. And the secondary has had to step up and has done a very good job, you know, proving himself and his talent on the football field this year.

But his -- I believe I heard you earlier last hour when I was on with you for a brief time or dialed in for a brief time. You were talking about his charity with the toys and the amount of money. I don't have the update on what's been raised, but it's just the last I think I saw was $700,000, and it's probably shut up from there due to the donations and the outpouring of support for him tonight, but very community oriented and kind of fits with if you look at the way the Bills reacted on the field tonight under such an extreme circumstance. This is an extraordinarily tightknit group that is very supportive and active in the community as well.

So, as people get to know and obviously after this, we'll get to know much more about Damar's community work and his charity that falls in line with a lot of the, quite frankly, the culture that Sean McDermott and Brandon Bean had been able to build with this franchise here in Buffalo. So, extraordinarily well liked by his teammates, as I said, a

tremendously tightknit group. I think made even further so by the mass shooting on the east side of Buffalo, east Buffalo this summer and the way that the players reacted to that widespread community support, but so many of them came out in the Choose Love T shirts that we've all seen the pictures of.

And so, I would say that Damar Hamlin and his community work is an extension of what so many of these Buffalo Bills players represent. So when you hear about many of his teammates wanting to stay back here in Cincinnati and not fly home to Orchard Park tonight, in light of the NFL's decision to have them do so, it would give you a sense of the level of commitment that exists and the bond among this team. you know, Stefon Diggs, one of the leading players, top receiver, Ubered to the hospital because he just felt he needed to be with Damar Hamlin and his family. So, what we've seen from Hamlin falls in line with so much of what this team has represented beyond the football field.

BERMAN: Adam, I can give you an update that GoFundMe now that was started by Damar Hamlin to raise money to buy toys for kids in his local community. It's now a $2.7 million.

BENIGNI: Yes, right. I mean, that's just skyrocketing. And so under such difficult circumstances, that level of support means a lot to many, I'm sure.

BERMAN: Adam Benigni, I want to thank you for being with us. I know how hard this has probably been on you, as well as someone who covers this team day in and day out. So thank you for joining us and giving us your insight. I do appreciate it. Our thanks to Coy, who's been with us too, and Bob Costas on the phone as well. A lot more to come tonight on our breaking news.

The Buffalo Bills' Damar Hamlin, 24 years old, collapsing on the field tonight after a collision on Monday Night Football. Just so people know, it doesn't appear it was a head or a spinal thing. The type of thing that we've seen so much in the NFL in the past. There are signs it may have been some kind of a cardiac event. There was CPR, also a defibrillator used, but we are waiting for more information on that. The information at this point is scant in a local hospital in critical condition. Our breaking news coverage continues.

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[01:23:12]

BERMAN: Right. The breaking news tonight, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, 24 years old, hospitalized in Cincinnati in critical condition. He collapsed after a collision during the first quarter of tonight's game between the Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals.

Hamlin fell on his back just moments after getting up from a tackle. He was the one doing the tackling of Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins.

Now joining me now is Jay Skurski, a reporter for the Buffalo News who was at the game and is still, Jay, I believe, at the stadium a long night or long morning now for you. Just talk to us about what you saw, what it looked like as you were watching from your perspective.

JAY SKURSKI, REPORTER, BUFFALO NEWS: Yeah, that is correct. Yes, I am still here at the stadium. Yes, you know, it was -- we were actually just discussing this a little bit those of us remaining here in the press box. You know, it appeared to be a relatively normal football play where Damar Hamlin was involved in the tackle on Tee Higgins. And because there was a crowd around of other players and officials after the play, none of us at first saw him collapse again from the press box, you know, from a pretty high vantage point. So we never saw him collapse.

But it was very apparent from the reactions of the players around him and the officials that something seriously was wrong. I have, quite frankly, never seen players react that way. And, you know, obviously, these are guys that are accustomed weekly, unfortunately, to seeing their teammates be injured. It was very apparent, it just seconds after he collapsed, that something was terribly wrong.

[01:25:04]

And then the sheer number of athletic trainers and emergency medical personnel, who came out to treat him, the speed with which a backboard and stretcher was brought out, and then the ambulance was brought on to the field. All of this led us to, you know, come away with the conclusion that whatever it was that had happened to Damar Hamlin was something extraordinary or narrowly serious.

BERMAN: Whatever it was. And that's the thing at this point, because we haven't really been given any official information on what happened exactly. We do know CPR. That was part of the NFL statement. And we have been told that some people reported seeing, I guess, the defibrillator situation. Any information you have on the nature of what did this?

SKURSKI: Not beyond what the league has said and what I witnessed personally through binoculars in the press box which was CPR being performed on the field. And I do want to say that I have never and I hope to never see something like that again. I think that was a scene that is going to stick with everyone in this stadium that witnessed it tonight for a long time.

It was an incredibly disturbing scene, and as you could see from the sheer emotion of the players, the coaches who were on the sideline, who are on the field, it was extraordinarily difficult to witness. Again, it would be premature of me to, you know, offer any specifics at all in regards to his condition. I believe that should come from the NFL or from the Bills themselves when that time is right. But, you know, we can, you know, confidently report that he was given CPR and that we know he was taken to a level one trauma center here, the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, which is about 4 miles from the stadium.

BERMAN: Any contact at this point with the team or as the team doing maybe what they should be doing, which is taking care of each other? SKURSKI: Yes. We have, of course, reached out to the team. We have not

heard back. We have received an official statement from the NFL in which they again said that Damar Hamlin was in critical condition. The league has done a conference call with some of their executives that wrapped up maybe 45 minutes ago, and we learned on that call and have since clarified that all of Damar Hamlin's teammates are returning to Buffalo this evening. That's a significant piece of news as it pertains to what the future of this game might be. Obviously, that is very much secondary to Damar Hamlin's health right now. But we do know that the Bills are returning to Buffalo as we speak.

BERMAN: Yes, again, secondary to health, and I think everyone agrees on that at this point. Everyone agrees people only want to see Damar Hamlin, his condition, improve, but eventually there will be questions about how or if or when this game will ever be made up.

Jay Skurski, I appreciate your being with us tonight. Thank you for the work that you're doing. I know this is the kind of night you'd much rather be writing about tackles or the Bills getting the first seed in the AFC. And here's hoping you get a chance to write those types of stories again soon. Thanks, Jay.

SKURSKI: Appreciate it. Thank you.

BERMAN: So we're going to take a quick break and come back with much more on the breaking news tonight. Buffalo Bills' Damar Hamlin, 24 years old, in critical condition after collapsing on the field tonight -- after a collision on Monday night football. We're going to speak to our medical experts. Again, no official word on what happened, but a lot of doctors and experts saw it and are now weighing in. Stay with us.

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[01:32:45]

BERMAN: The breaking news tonight, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, 24 years-old is hospitalized in critical condition. He collapsed after a collision during the first quarter of Monday night football. The Buffalo Bills against the Cincinnati Bengals. Hamlin fell on his back just moments after getting up from a tackle. He tackled the Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins.

I want to bring in Dr. Megan Ranney, an emergency room physician and deputy dean at Brown University School of Public Health, and Dr. Anthony Cardillo who's also an emergency room physician to get a sense of what we saw. And I want to make clear, there's been no official statement about the medical condition other than he is in the hospital with critical condition. But no official statement about the nature of the injury itself.

So, Dr. Ranney first to you, what did you see?

DR. MEGAN RANNEY, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: So I actually am on vacation, arranged my day in order to see the Bills game. I'm a lifelong Bills fan. And so we're sitting, watching the game with my family and when you first watched it, it looked like a regular tackle. As he ten went down, you saw folks come out on to the field, saw him surrounded, saw my fellow emergency physicians rush out to treat him. I very quickly realized that something have gone horribly wrong.

BERMAN: And based on the type of treatment and the placement of the hit, the collision itself, CPR we are told, maybe a defibrillator, the collision appeared to be in the area of his chest Dr. Ranney. What does that tell you?

DR. RANNEY: So what that suggests to me is that most likely, this is something called commotio cordis when you get hit in the chest or it hits at just the wrong time in the cardiac cycle it can disrupt your heart rhythm. Basically make it so that the heart can't beat correctly and cause a cardiac arrest.

The treatment for that is of course quick CPR. Every minute that you go without CPR, puts you at risk. And second quick application of an AED to shock you and get your heart back into a regular rhythm.

[01:34:57]

DR. RANNEY: If indeed, Mr. Hamlin did suffer commotio cordis, it was thanks to that preparation of the NFL and the NFL Players Association, thanks to the very quick response of all of those trained medical professionals and emergency physicians at the game that his life would've been safe.

BERMAN: Dr. Cardillo, the likelihood of that being the injury that you saw, is there any other possible explanation.

DR. ANTHONY CARDILLO, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: Well, there certainly are. But I have to agree. This is pretty much developing into what we think commotio cordis.

This is a traumatic injury to the anterior chest. And it has to happen at the exact time when the heart is hardest being prepared to beat again during that re-polarization cycle.

This is extremely rare, however, it's almost like getting struck by lightning. It's that rare. It has to be acute trauma to the anterior chest just at that right moment.

And looking at how this is unfolding, when you watch that video, the trauma, the trauma to the chest is pretty consistent with what you'd expect to induce this.

The second is the way he stood up and then fell backwards. You see that kind of fall (INAUDIBLE) when you have a cardiac event or dysrhythmia where the heart is not beating 100 percent and pump blood up to the brain. That causes you to pass out. It's all developing as though it is this phenomenon.

And, then of course, he was pulseless almost also immediately after he fell down again indicating that his heart was in a lethal (ph) rhythm or a ventricular fibrillation. Now it's likely a scene, we're hoping that CPR was started immediately. And that that AED was available. The automated external defibrillator was available and he was shocked quickly.

Those are the immediate lifesaving therapeutic interventions that would've saved his life.

BERMAN: So CPR, and the defibrillator, that can make a difference? That can perhaps get you through this?

DR. CARDILLO: 100 percent. That is life and death, whether CPR started emergently. And more importantly, you need to have AED everywhere in our community. It is a life saving technology when the heart is fibrillating. The only thing you can really do is administer that electrical shock. And we are hopeful that that's what happened on the field.

BERMAN: And if that happened on the field in time, what now? What is the treatment now?

DR. CARDILLO: Well, of course he is in critical condition right now. And he would've been intubated emergently. And heart hopefully, would've come back.

And the real clincher here is going to be how long was he down for? How long before he got mouth to mouth resuscitation, or a bag valve mask -- someone breathing for him. And more importantly, how quickly he was defibrillated.

Now, what happens now is? He's young, he's healthy, he's an athlete, he's well conditioned. If the heart came back, he is certainly back to normal or close to normal physiologic status.

It's really going to be dependent upon how much brain anoxia he had. And this is all speculative, which is all the physicians now are watching what happened. We're looking at the type of trauma that he had, how he fell down, and then how his care unfolded.

It is really all pointing towards this traumatic dysrhythmia that would've happened. And really, it's going to come down to his underlying strength, his conditioning and how long he was without any oxygen.

BERMAN: Dr. Ranney, Buffalo Bills fan, to you one of the things that has been said, and again not confirmed but a friend posted a statement that said he had been intubated. Talk to us about that and why and for how long. And also what signs you would be looking for now.

DR. RANNEY: Absolutely, so the first and most important thing is that CPR was done quickly. And at that automatic external defibrillator was applied.

We delay intubation actually until we have good CPR. CPR matters so much more than being intubated. But once you do get a rhythm back, as Dr. Cardillo mentioned, we want to breathe for you. We want to take away the stress of trying to ventilate yourself. We want to put you into a medical coma so that we can stabilize you, make sure that your body heals.

And then over the next 24 to 48 hours, they're going to be watching very closely to see what sort of a natural neurological response you demonstrate, to watch how your heart responds, to watch how your blood pressure responds, watch if you start breathing on your own.

There are times where we will put the body into an induced hypothermia, or basically cool you down. Again, to remove stress, to allow the hard to repair, to allow you to get better more quickly.

[01:39:52]

DR. RANNEY: I would leave that to the doctors in the Emergency Department in Cincinnati to have made the decision whether or not to cool him. But being intubated is a very normal thing after cardiac arrest.

If that tweet was true, and I tweeted this out. I think that is very good news. I think I and many of us who care deeply about the Bills or who care about football were watching with concern with the amount of time that had passed since -- from the time that Hamlin fell until we got any updates.

That length of time for me was so concerning and (INAUDIBLE) that nothing good was happening. The fact that he is alive is a really good sign.

BERMAN: Well let's hope.

And again, we are waiting for more information from the University of Cincinnati Hospital at this point.

Dr. Ranney, Dr. Cardillo -- thank you both so much for helping us understand. I think we are much more educated now than we were just a few minutes ago on what the process may have been over the last several hours. So thank you very much for that.

When we do come back --

(CROSSTALK)

DR. RANNEY: Thank you and go bills.

BERMAN: I think everyone tonight is a Bills fan or at least a Damar Hamlin fan.

All right. We're going to have much more on our breaking news. Damar Hamlin, safety for the Buffalo Bills in critical condition after this collapse on the field. The Bills-Bengals game was postponed, that's the secondary significance now. We'll get as much information as we can about Damar Hamlin's condition.

Stay with us.

[01:41:13]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: The breaking news now, this morning, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin is in critical condition at a Cincinnati hospital, the University of Cincinnati Hospital after collapsing on the field during the first quarter of Monday night football against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Hamlin fell on his back just moments after getting up from an open field tackle of Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins.

A little while ago, the NFL held a conference call with reporters. One of the people speaking on that call from the league was Troy Vincent executive vice president of the NFL, himself a all pro NFL player and he was talking about -- Troy Vincent was -- and what it was like to be monitoring the situation in a conference with other NFL executives including Roger Goodell. Let's listen to Troy Vincent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TROY VINCENT, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, NFL: Watching in real time and our lines -- we had an open line of communication where we were talking. Again, there was a lot of people on the open line. Didn't want anybody to drop off.

And again, we were speaking frequently. And it was -- obviously, he was devastated too. This was an occurrence that we just haven't seen in our time. And the concern was, he just kept asking what is the latest update -- what's the latest update on Damar.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Again, that was Troy Vincent from the NFL. Joining me now is former NFL player Donte Stallworth. Donte, thanks for being with us. I really appreciate it.

This injury, this collapse happened after a collision between Damar Hamlin who was a defensive back and the wide receiver Tee Higgins from the Cincinnati Bengals. You yourself were a receiver, a good one. Talk to us about the power of a collision like that.

DONTE STALLWORTH, FORMER NFL PLAYER: Yes, you know what, it really looked routine. I mean I watch NFL all the time. Been an NFL fan since -- as long as I can remember.

It was a typical routine play, where you have the wide receiver catching a ball across the middle, it turns up the field. And the defensive back tackles them, they both jump up.

And, you know, when I saw Damar jump up and then he fell back down to the ground, I knew that was something that we hadn't really seen before. We had seen players, you know, unfortunately unconscious on the ground.

We've seen players tear ligaments, break bones, which are all horrible but this seems a lot different initially just because he had stood up and he wasn't stumbling around, he stood up for a few seconds and he fell back down.

And that was concerning and I saw the concern on the players' faces. And you can always tell when a player is really injured because you'll see the players from both teams, motioning frantically over to the player sidelines. Motioning over to the sidelines tell them to hey, come, this player needs medical attention immediately

And you saw that. I think you saw Joe (INAUDIBLE) who actually Damar had fallen into. You saw Joe (INAUDIBLE) pointing down to the ground and motioning over to the sidelines for the medical staff to come out and you saw the players after a few minutes couldn't really see what was happening on the field because they were all crowded around.

But when both benches cleared, to me that was significant because usually that doesn't happen, even when players have concussions which are obviously, you know, traumatic brain -- traumatic injuries and those are really tough.

Or when a player has, you know, some type of season and the injury that's unfortunate for anyone, you'll see players that are on the field come out and they wish the player well.

But both benches cleared, and you saw players on both sides, players from both teams crying. I've never seen that before. And it just underscored the severity of the injury.

And I think that, you know, when we heard the announcers that were speaking said that they were administering CPR, that for me really did it because we have never, I personally had never seen that before.

I've been following the NFL as long as I can remember. I've played for ten years. I coached. And on any level, high school, college or the pros I had never seen anyone be administered CPR while on the practice field or the game field. So that was obviously very troubling.

BERMAN: Deeply concerning, right from the very beginning of this.

[01:49:56]

BERMAN: There are some reports that the Bills' plane has departed Cincinnati -- the players, the team going back to Buffalo. I know again because of the unprecedented nature of this, it's hard to put yourself in that situation, but what do you think it must be like for those players on that plane right now?

STALLWORTH: They're all -- I'm sure they're all trying to get updated information on Damar's health. I know they are. Anytime a player has -- there's been a couple of times where I played in games where players have not flown back with you, you know, back home because we always fly out immediately after the game, you know, we go on to the locker room, we shower, the coach says whatever he wants to say about the game.

And we get on the buses to head straight to the airport and we leave, we go back home. And so these players -- I can just imagine that they're consistently asking for updates. Obviously wishing him well, saying their prayers and just hoping and praying that, you know, the best outcome for Damar, whatever that case may be that he can continue to be a healthy human after this because football is secondary.

And I know you saw it on the players' faces, you saw it on coaches' faces that there wasn't even a football game after that. Those guys were all concerned about Damar and his health.

BERMAN: That's a great point, there wasn't a game. This isn't about the game. This is about a human being right now. Everyone hoping and praying for Damar Hamlin.

Donte Stallworth, thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate it.

STALLWORTH: Thanks John.

BERMAN: We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

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BERMAN: All right. The breaking news, a very important update on the condition of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, 24 years old who is now in critical condition at the University of Cincinnati Hospital after collapsing on the field on Monday night football.

A statement from the Buffalo Bills moments ago. "Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest, following a hit in our game versus the Bengals. His heartbeat was restored on the field and he was transferred to the UC Medical Center for further testing and treatment. He's currently sedated and listed in critical condition."

So, his heartbeat was restored on the field. That is the first time we have heard that information or received official word that it was cardiac arrest that caused him to collapse.

So, much more on this coming up. Our coverage continues.

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