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It was there for all the world to see Monday night: Damar Hamlin colliding with Tee Higgins, getting up from what appeared to be a routine tackle, then frighteningly falling backwards onto the turf at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, in cardiac arrest.
As it became apparent that this was no ordinary football injury — an unthinkable, unimaginable story told by the horrified expressions on the faces of the Bills and Bengals players as Hamlin suddenly was being administered CPR by frantic medical personnel — former Jets players from the 1992 team had memories of the late Dennis Byrd flood their minds and toy with their emotions.
On Nov. 29, 1992, at the Meadowlands, Byrd, a defensive end, broke his neck and was paralyzed after colliding with teammate Scott Mersereau while trying to sack Chiefs quarterback Dave Krieg.
Thirty years later, as Hamlin lay stricken, it was a powerfully jarring moment to witness for players from that 1992 Jets team, who loved Byrd like a family member the same way the Buffalo players love Hamlin.
In the wake of that horrific incident, Post columnists Steve Serby and Mark Cannizzaro spoke to a number of Byrd’s former teammates about that fateful day, the aftermath and the emotional and psychological challenges the Bills will face when they take the field again Sunday against the Patriots in Orchard Park.
Jeff Lageman, a former Jets defensive end and close friend of Byrd’s, was watching the Bills-Bengals game on TV with his wife.
“Football is a gladiator sport. You sign up for it and you know the risks that are inherent,’’ Lageman said. “But one of those risks that you never really thought was a possibility was death.’’
Lageman knew right away that something was very wrong.
“When I saw the players’ faces, I told my wife, ‘I’ve got a feeling that this guy is dying,’” he said.
“Even as horrific of an injury that Dennis had, he was breathing and talking to us,’’ former defensive end Paul Frase said. “I remember [linebacker] Kyle Clifton reaching down and he says, ‘Come on Dennis, get up,’ and was going to grab his hand and Dennis said, ‘No Kyle, my neck’s broken.’
“But we watched Dennis get carted off to the ambulance and the reaction was, how many people have broken their neck in football? A lot over the years. And how many games were resumed right after it happened? Probably all of them. Was this the first time a game had been canceled? Wow.
“From the emotions that you could see from the players on the field, this was not an emotion like, ‘OK, he’s alive, he’s awake, he’s doing OK.’ He was gone. As horrific as Dennis’ injury was, that Monday night was totally different.’’
Former defensive end Marvin Washington, like Lageman, was in Byrd’s draft class in 1989.
“We went through it with Dennis, and I thought that was horrific,’’ Washington said. “If you want to take it from 1-to-10, I thought that was a 10. But [Monday] night was past that.”
Cal Dixon was a rookie center on that 1992 Jets team who’d grown close to Byrd, whom he called a mentor.
“Watching that game, it really hit me hard because what I saw was the closest thing that came to what happened with Dennis,’’ Dixon said. “Maybe I had repressed a lot of those feelings that I had from when Dennis was hurt. But watching Monday night, I was almost jittery. I was pacing back and forth and didn’t know what to do with myself. A lot of thoughts from Dennis’ injury came flooding back in my mind.’’
Same with quarterback Ken O’Brien, who was in his final year with the Jets in 1992.
“I had that same feeling in the game when Dennis was hurt,’’ O’Brien said. “When it happened, it was like time stood still. Monday night did bring back certain memories of that. Dennis was a miracle to walk again and our fingers are crossed that everything works out the same way for [Hamlin].’’
The Hamlin family, as well as Bills quarterback Josh Allen, were quick to publicly support the unfairly maligned Higgins, just as the 1992 Jets were quick to protect Mersereau.
“Mersereau wasn’t himself,” Washington recalled. “If you knew Mersereau, Mersereau was energetic, kept things loose, and he didn’t have that normal pep about him.”
Washington said teammates tried to lift Mersereau up and say, “This ain’t your deal, it’s not your fault.”
Mersereau recalled the Jets having therapists available for him and others, and dissuaded him from visiting Byrd at Lenox Hill Hospital for several days.
“When something that traumatic happens, you start to look around,’’ Mersereau said. “We all thought we’re invincible at that age, like we had a suit of armor on. And all of a sudden, an incident like that [and] the armor disappears and you’re just a human being like everybody else, and [you wonder] what is most important here? It’s your life, and the rest of your life, and the quality of the life that you’re gonna have.”
Mersereau, a financial analyst for B. Riley Financial in Boca Raton, Fla., required a successful 11-hour spinal fusion in 1995.
“When Krieg stepped up in the pocket, the two of us collided,” he said. “I wasn’t aware who it was. I was on the ground with back pain, and my ankle got twisted up under me and stuff like that, so when they were tending to me, I said to the trainers, ‘Who was that?’ And then they said it was Dennis. My heart sunk.”
The Jets’ next game, coincidentally, was against the Bills in Orchard Park. The Jets were 3-9 and on their way to a 4-12 finish. They entered that game as 17-point underdogs and won 24-17.
“I remember that day distinctly,’’ Lageman, who was on injured reserve with a knee injury, recalled. “The moment that we had in the locker room before we took the field in Buffalo was as emotional as anything that I’ve ever been a part of. It literally brings tears to my eyes right now thinking about it.
“I’ll never forget what [head coach] Bruce Coslet said talking to the team. All Bruce said was, ‘Do your best.’ And he said it with this conviction and volume that, phew, it shot us out of a cannon. It was one of the most intense moments I’ve ever been involved in … and I wasn’t even playing.”
Coslet reported that Byrd, who had been paralyzed from the neck down except for his right biceps, had wiggled his toes, and defensive coordinator Pete Carroll had delivered positive updates as well to players desperate to hear them.
“I remember everybody was kind of fired up about it,’’ Washington said. “I remember Bruce saying, ‘This is what Dennis would want. Dennis would want us to go out and focus on the Bills, Dennis would want us to go out there and give it all.’”
Mersereau said: “Before the game, we said a prayer for Dennis, during the game it was all about playing for Dennis, and then after the game it was all about devoting the victory to him. It was Dennis’ spirit I think that lifted us to prevail in that game.’’
After big plays, Jets defensive players pointed to the sky.
“Dennis, his faith was beyond reproach,” Mersereau said, “and so that was an honor to him for sure.”
An honor that caring team owner Leon Hess, who became a daily visitor at the hospital, could appreciate.
“Leon Hess came into that locker room pregame, and he brought us all together and he said, ‘Everybody, I want you to know that Dennis Byrd and his family will be taken care of. We love Dennis. We are praying for him,’” Frase recalled. “That was literally like a sigh of relief. And I went out that day and I played with reckless abandon, like we’re taught. That talk from Leon Hess was kind of like a release.’’
Lageman believes this game will be therapeutic for the Bills, yet there are sure to be fears players have never confronted.
“In a lot of ways, playing in the game can kind of take you away from some of the thoughts and concerns that you may have in your life,’’ Lageman said. “But this is a little different, because you’re getting ready to do something that almost cost your teammate, friend’s life. So, the only way you get through it is you band together and you hold hands and cry and do it together.
“The reality is it’s your job, it’s your livelihood, but it’s more than that — it’s your love and your passion and it’s your being. It’s what you are.’’
Washington: “It’s not gonna be normal for the Bills. It’s not. These are young men that have never had a real medical issue come in to penetrate their sports bubble. This is a life-and-death situation.’’
Rob Carpenter, a Jets receiver in 1992, didn’t rule out fear that the Hamlin near-tragedy has undoubtedly stirred among NFL players.
“Every player in the league right now is probably thinking, ‘Can that happen to me next? Can that happen to my teammate next?’” Carpenter said. “There’s probably been talk in every locker room and every meeting room about what happened and what’s going to take place this Sunday, how focused guys are going to be playing the game but also at the same time thinking about Damar. And it’s probably a thousand times more in the Bills’ locker room.
“Honestly, I don’t even know how those guys on the Bills are actually going to be able to go out and focus on playing Sunday. It’s going to be difficult for the Bills.’’
Thankfully, miraculously, Hamlin was taken off his ventilator on Friday and spoke to his heartened teammates on FaceTime. Byrd’s miracle was beginning to walk again three months later.
“It’s going to be hard to play,’’ Jeff Crisswell, a 1992 Jets offensive tackle, said. “It was for us as well back when Dennis got hurt. But hopefully, the young man will be out of critical condition at this point and maybe he’ll have some encouraging words for his teammates which will spur them on.’’
O’Brien said he believes the remarkable progress Hamlin has made this week will empower and inspire the Bills.
“I don’t think the Bills understand how powerful and emotional it’s going to be for them in that locker room on Sunday,’’ O’Brien said. “He’s given them power to get back out there and do it. In a really weird way, it makes you stronger as a team when you go through that.’’
Asked what advice he would give the Bills, Washington said: “Rely on each other. Probably the best thing you can do is focus on winning the game for him, and maybe that will be the linchpin to make them focus and win the Super Bowl.
“They’re playing for something that’s bigger than themselves now.”
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