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ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Damien Harris discovered just this week his first child will be a boy.
Sunday night, an instant after rushing for a Buffalo Bills first down, Harris fell to the ground with a neck injury. He lay motionless and flat on his back. The Highmark Stadium crowd fell silent. The ambulance was summoned.
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Left tackle Dion Dawkins checked to make sure Harris was breathing — something the Bills couldn’t immediately see from another teammate 10 months ago — but then walked away, unable to watch Harris get strapped to the backboard and driven away.
“Imagine if he can’t hold his son,” Bills left tackle Dion Dawkins said, unable to stop thinking about the 26-year-old Harris and his expecting wife, Nyasha. “Off of one play? That’s scary, man.”
The injury occurred on Harris’ only offensive snap in the Bills’ 14-9 victory over the New York Giants and evoked memories of safety Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest last season. The game in Cincinnati initially was postponed and later canceled as the Bills spent the next couple of days wondering whether Hamlin would survive.
“Especially after last year, anytime the ambulance has to come on the field, it brings PTSD,” Dawkins said. “It’s hard. It’s really hard, man.
“I hate to say it like this, but before every game starts in this league, you have to hug your loved ones just a little bit closer. You really never know.”
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Harris’ injury occurred with 3:15 left in the first half. Replays showed nothing obvious happened to hurt him. On third-and-1 from Buffalo’s 34-yard line, Harris ran off the right guard and into middle linebacker Bobby Okereke.
Harris’ face mask was removed as Buffalo’s medical staff tended to him. Players, coaches and staff left the sideline to stand on the field and monitor as best they could. He gave his teammates and the crowd a left thumb up to let everyone know he wasn’t paralyzed.
“I’ve always hated it,” Bills defensive end A.J. Epenesa said. “Seeing it happen firsthand to Damar, it was no different tonight. Every time someone is down, that sick feeling goes through your body.”
The ambulance doors — “Hamlin 3” signage in each window — closed behind Harris and took him to Erie County Medical Center for further tests. The Bills announced in the third quarter that Harris had movement in all his extremities.
Injury Update: Damien Harris (neck) is out for the game.
He has movement in his arms and legs. Harris is being taken to hospital for further testing.
— Buffalo Bills PR (@BuffaloBillsPR) October 16, 2023
The game resumed, but the Bills, who started slow, stumbled some more.
Two plays after the stoppage, Josh Allen threw an interception. The Giants then made it to the 1-yard line with 14 seconds left until halftime, but the Bills stuffed a Saquon Barkley run and the clock expired.
“In Damar’s situation, the game did stop,” Epenesa said. “But other than that, the game doesn’t stop for anybody. The next play is coming. You have to compartmentalize, take your mind somewhere else so you can focus on the task at hand.”
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Harris has been a backup for most of the season but has returned kickoffs. The New England Patriots’ leading rusher two years ago with 929 yards and 15 touchdowns entered Sunday with 93 yards and one touchdown.
With memories of what happened to Hamlin flooding back, whatever relief Dawkins found in the knowledge Harris wasn’t paralyzed didn’t provide enough peace.
“What happened last year doesn’t prepare you any more,” Dawkins said. “It’s just tough, and it’s sad.
“Any moment, that can be it.”
(Photo: Timothy T Ludwig / Getty Images)
