'I really love this': Hamlin battles nerves, Colts in return - ESPN

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The butterflies aren't something that Damar Hamlin anticipates going away. And they aren't new either.

When Hamlin was younger, he would get very nervous before games, so much so that he wouldn't be able to do anything else. His dad, Mario, told him that it was a good thing to be nervous. "'You know that mean you care. That mean you ready,'" Damar Hamlin recalled his father saying.

The Buffalo Bills' preseason opener against the Indianapolis Colts, a 23-19 victory on Saturday, marked the 25-year-old's first football game since suffering cardiac arrest during a regular season matchup against the Bengals on Jan. 2.

Hamlin said that the first hit — which came on the second of back-to-back blitzes in which he made the final tackle on running back Evan Hull on a fourth-and-1 play in the middle of the first quarter to get the ball back to the Bills offense — took a little weight off his shoulders.

But the nervous butterfly feeling before that first hit takes place in a game, something he described as universal for athletes, is something that he expects to probably remain. He views it as a reminder that you are human.

«When I'm feeling those nerves and I'm feeling those emotions, it just means I, it means I love, I really love this,» Hamlin said, whose first play back was a kickoff. «I love this, like, I want to be here. I wanna play, I want to do good. I want to be one of the greats. I wanna be remembered as somebody who, you know, stood for something and who made a difference when I was out there on the field.»

Hamlin was able to help his own emotions going into the game through his preparation, doing extra work during the week, including extra tackling, but continued to play on the field without