Kirby Smart reveals how Georgia responded to Damar Hamlin situation

Damar Hamlin’s medical scare on the football field sent shockwaves nationwide and Georgia head coach Kirby Smart made sure to check in on his players after the Bills’ safety’s collapse.

Hamlin is currently in recovery and he certainly uplifted the entire NFL community and it made way to the college game. But Smart made sure to address the situation with his Bulldogs since the scene was unprecedented.

“Yeah, definitely,” Smart said when asked if he talked to his team about Hamlin. “First of all, I have children who play sports. And that injury happens actually in hockey and baseball probably more often than football. But it scares me.

“Thank goodness we have Ron Courson who is almost a 30-year athletic trainer, athletic trainer for me. He immediately reached out to me. We were studying, watching tape getting ready for TCU. He reached out and told me we need to address it with our team.”

Smart also talked about his process discussing Hamlin’s situation with his team.

“So the very next morning, first thing we did is we brought in a mental health specialist, we brought in an athletic trainer, we brought in a team chaplain, and we prayed,” Smart said. “We also addressed it from a mental health standpoint. And then Ron educated players on exactly what happened and how rare, but it can happen and you have to have people in place to save lives.

“What an incredible job they did on the scene to make sure that he has an opportunity to recover from it. So the education piece was important to us to ensure our players that safety measures are there.”

Hamlin can breathe on his own and is still recovering, but the Bills safety put out a message Saturday via his Instagram.

“When you put real love out into the world it comes back to you 3x’s as much,” Hamlin wrote, along with three heart-hands emojis. “The Love has been overwhelming, but I’m thankful for every single person that prayed for me and reached out. We brung the world back together behind this. If you know me you know this only gone make me stronger. On a long road keep praying for me!”

The NFL initially suspended the Bengals vs. Bills game, but ultimately said it wouldn’t resume play. That led to multiple playoff scenarios since the teams will play one less game, and owners approved a plan that would call for the AFC Championship game to be played at a neutral site if either team makes it to that round.