Did you watch the 2023 NFL Honor awards Thursday February 9th? We always hear about the usual votes going out to the Patrick Mahome’s, Dak Prescott’s, Sauce Gardner’s of the league, but did you pay attention to the one that probably made the most impact on one person’s life?
It was the ONE vote that went out to the Buffalo Bills Assistant Athletic Trainer, Denny Kellington. Kellington was responsible for giving Bills Safety Damar Hamlin life-saving CPR before being transmitted into an ambulance.
The New Voting Rules
Under the new rules, voters create their ballots by selecting five-separate athletes from this year’s pool of candidates. The votes are then graded in order of liking. Because of this, there was one voter who you may know that earned the opportunity to celebrate Kellington for his stunning, brave, and courageous act. In this case, it was Suzy Kolber of ESPN who voted for the Bills Assistant Athletic Trainer as a fifth-place MVP selection.
MVP Vote
Kolber addressed the AP that the vote was a, “symbolic gesture representing ‘everyone’ who carries the weight of that job, every week. They rarely get the recognition they deserve.” With the revamped new voting system by the AP, MVP votes are calculated based on the location on the ballot. This means that despite Kolber having Kellington fifth, the vote does not count for the top-five winners.
The “Tragic Event of number 3, Damar Hamlin”
The Buffalo Bills were taking on the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday, Jan 2, 2023 in front of a national, MNF audience at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, OH. In the 1st qtr. of the game, Bengals (WR) Tee Higgins collided with Bills (S) Damar Hamlin. Originally, the hit seemed like no big deal as Hamlin got up and seconds later, number 3 collapsed and fell to the ground.
For a while, it was very dire, the whole stadium was still as the Bills Safety was lying completely motionless and was not breathing on his own. That was when Bills trainer Denny Kellington made one heroic action that would eventually save Hamlin’s life.
Kellington performed CPR on the field, before Hamlin was loaded onto the back of an ambulance. What started out as a night of celebration and hopes of a great football game, turned into a nightmare of grievance and mayham.
When Hamlin woke up from his hospital bed three days later he was able to communicate by writing. The first words he scripted were, “Did we win?” One of the hospitals doctors replied back saying, “yes Damar, you won the game of life.”
So without having Kellington out on the field that night and being able to provide CPR to Hamlin, he would not be here today. That shows us that even though Kellington didn’t win the MVP Award, he was still able to receive the recognition he most surely deserved for saving a mans life!
For another interesting NFL Story, please check out:
https://gridironheroics.com/the-top-15-events-of-the-past-2022-nfl-season/