Bills’ Damar Hamlin gets first career interception

Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin’s miraculous comeback reached another milestone Monday as he grabbed his first career interception.

Hamlin intercepted Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence late in the second quarter. Lawrence overthrew receiver Brian Thomas Jr., and Hamlin was ready and waiting to accept the errant pass.

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The Bills scored their fourth touchdown only a few plays later.

Hamlin is in his fourth season with Buffalo, but it’s his first season as a starting safety. He earned the spot in training camp after the Bills parted ways with their previous starting safeties in the offseason.

Through two weeks, Hamlin has played the vast majority of Buffalo’s defensive snaps, and entering Monday he had recorded 14 total tackles.

Hamlin’s first career interception came 20 months after his near-fatal injury against the Cincinnati Bengals, which was also a “Monday Night Football” game. In January 2023, Hamlin collapsed after he made a tackle and went into cardiac arrest. He was revived on the field before he was hospitalized. He later said he had an episode of commotio cordis, a condition that causes a disruption in the heartbeat after a blow to the chest.

“It’s one thing to come back off of an ACL or a broken bone. It’s another thing to come back off of what he came back off of, right?” Bills coach Sean McDermott said before the team’s season opener. “Let alone just to decide to play football and contact football in full pads at the NFL level. I don’t think I need to say anything more. It’s incredible.”

Hamlin was cleared to play football in April 2023. He appeared in only five games for Buffalo last season, recording two tackles while playing mostly on special teams. During Buffalo’s divisional round playoff game against the Kansas City Chiefs, he took a direct snap on a fake punt attempt in the fourth quarter, but he failed to convert for a first down.

The Bills entered Monday’s game 2-0.