'Trying to get back to myself': Hamlin's comeback quest goes on - ESPN

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The first thing that you need to know about Damar Hamlin's comeback is that it's not complete. It's still happening for the Buffalo Bills safety over a year after suffering cardiac arrest during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

While a season back in the NFL was completed amid the many significant steps of Hamlin's recovery, that journey is ongoing.

«My focus was just coming back. That was the hardest part,» Hamlin told ESPN at the end of January, while speaking as part of a promotion for Bounty's «Ultimate Wingmen» campaign along with teammate Dane Jackson. "… Just growing and trying to get back to myself, and then… trying to rebuild myself into something that I haven't been yet.

Hamlin, 25, who won the Pro Football Writers of America's Comeback Player of the Year award last month, is one of five finalists for the Associated Press' Comeback Player of the Year award given out during NFL Honors on Thursday night in Las Vegas (9 p.m. EST, CBS/NFL Network). It's an award with no definition as the Associated Press confirmed that voters (50 nationwide reporters who cover the league) are not given a guide as to what qualifies for the award.

MLB awards it to a player in each league «who has re-emerged on the field during the season.» Pitcher Liam Hendriks was one of the 2023 winners after a return to the field after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and later announcing he was cancer free. He played only five games because of a separate injury.

The award doesn't exist in the NBA anymore. It was phased out after six years in the 1980s because of difficulties clarifying its requirements.

In the NHL, the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy goes to «to the National Hockey League player who best exemplifies