Bru McCoy explains how Damar Hamlin, chance to give back led to ‘Huddle for Hearts’ NIL initiative

Every time he scores a touchdown this year, Tennessee wideout Bru McCoy’s ‘Huddle for Hearts’ NIL initiative will see an automatic external defibrillator (AED) donated to an underserved community. It’s a cause that hits home for McCoy in a number of ways.

McCoy explained the origins of the NIL give-back scheme with On3’s Andy Staples. A number of factors influenced McCoy to give back in this way, including the high-profile injury suffered by Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals in early 2023.

“It had a big effect on me. It was the first occurence where you see somebody potentially lose their life on the field. Or the first time I had seen it. I think the only other time I could think of off the top of my head of hearing something like that was like Hank Gathers, and that was a story I was told and saw a YouTube video on,” McCoy said.

Staples noted McCoy hadn’t been born yet when that happened.

“Wasn’t alive, yeah. So, in my lifetime, this was the first time that I had — other than like a contact neck injury, which I think all football players know that’s a real thing. It was impactful and it left a lot of food for thought for me. And then this NIL space, we have so many opportunities to do things and I’m going to do something that was impactful to like what I’m doing in my day-to-day life,” McCoy said.

McCoy also explained another influence that started the whole idea around the same time. He met Julie Walker, whose daughter Peyton had died from a sudden cardiac arrest, and was working to get AEDs to schools and communities.

It instantly drew in McCoy.

“So I was talking with her and she started an organization called the Peyton Walker Foundation and they were raising money to provide AEDs to the community and CPR education. So I thought that was cool, I thought it was very timely, too. So it was like, ‘What can I do?’ Subsequently I made the  Huddle for Hearts Initiative and through that initiative I basically raise money to be able to give AEDs to the local Knoxville community and then that kind of snowballed in, OK, now, it’s like every touchdown I catch, they’re going to donate one to an underserved community, which is awesome. Still like the beginning phases, but that’s the gist of it,” McCoy said.

It’s now led to the ‘Huddle for Hearts’ as part of the Peyton Walker Foundation.

He even got his teammates to take the time to learn basic CPR and get acquainted with an AED themselves — the hope is the training is never needed, but McCoy pales at the thought of needing it and not knowing what to do.

“It was just education like how to actually use it. Because I mean, it would be unfortunate to have one and not know how to use it,” McCoy said.