Throughout the 2023 NFL season, Damar Hamlin did far more than simply return to professional football. He did come back, of course, after dying on a field that Jan. 2. Only to be saved, resuscitated, as players who understand that violence is inherent in their sport wiped tears from their cheeks. Hamlin became an advocate, an inspiration and a miracle, in human form.
Which was great and all. But while Hamlin wanted those things, while he embraced the rapid transformation of his life and helped because he wanted to, advocacy and inspirations and even wearing a Buffalo Bills uniform again were not what he really wanted.
