Orchard Park, N.Y. (WHAM)\u2014 Safety Damar Hamlin is set to start in the Bills’ season opener Sunday against the Cardinals.<\/p>\n
The last game Hamlin started was in Cincinnati at the end of the 2022 season, when he went into cardiac arrest on the field.<\/a><\/p>\n MORE:A closer look at the condition that caused Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest<\/a><\/p>\n He did play some last year, but it was a different kind of season.<\/p>\n “Last year primarily was just about healing and coming back into myself, who I always was, and who I was trying to become,” Hamlin said Wednesday while speaking to media.<\/p>\n The game in Cincinnati was Hamlin’s 13th start of that season.<\/p>\n That’s why his teammates have faith in him.<\/p>\n “He’s a very smart football player,” linebacker Terrel Bernard said. “We all trust him, and he trusts us, and I think having that communication daily and spending time watching tapes together, it ends up becoming second-nature.”<\/p>\n “I kept my competition internal, and I think that allowed me to be my best self,” Hamlin said. “So I’m using past experience\u2014 however many starts you said it was\u2014 to allow me to be more of a veteran presence out there on the field this year.”<\/p>\n RELATED: Hamlin’s ‘mind is free,’ a year after resuming football after a near-death experience<\/a><\/p>\n Hamlin reads a lot. He likes sayings, which he’ll put on post-it notes and keep where he can see them.<\/p>\n He said one of his favorites is “Consistency is the mark of greatness.” That’ll be his goal for this season.<\/p>\n MORE:Red Wings to host inaugural home run derby; Damar Hamlin to make appearance<\/a><\/p>\n