Denny Kellington, Former Syracuse Football Athletic Trainer, Credited With Saving Damar Hamlin's Life

Kellington performed life saving CPR and revived Buffalo Bills' DB after he collapsed against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Mike McAllister | Jan 5, 2023

Denny Kellington, Former Syracuse Football Athletic Trainer, Credited With Saving Damar Hamlin's Life /

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Former Syracuse football athletic trainer Denny Kellington, now an assistant athletic trainer for the Buffalo Bills, is credited with live saving CPR that revived Damar Hamlin after he collapsed during the game against the Cincinnati Bengals Monday night. Kellington was with Syracuse from 2005 to 2017, and his quick actions saved Hamlin's life, according to medical professionals.

Hamlin collapsed during Monday night's game against the Bengals after tackling wide receiver Tee Higgins. It was evident immediately this was not an ordinary injury. The game was suspended after Hamlin was eventually taken to the hospital via ambulance following Bills' training staff's life saving actions.

During a press conference on Thursday, University of Cincinnati Medical Center doctors pointed to the actions of Kellington and others on the field as why Hamlin has been showing such positive progress over the last few days. That includes waking up on Thursday, holding hands with loved ones and communicating via written notes.

Bills head coach Sean McDermott praised Kellington during his press conference on Thursday as well.

"Denny is one of our assistant trainers," McDermott said. "Nate Breske is our head trainer. Just like anything else, our medical team goes through their mock exercises for things like that. But we are never around to see that. As they say, practice pays off and it did in this case. Again, the context of it, for an assistant to find himself at that position and needing to take the action that he did and step up. Take charge like he did, and there were others on the field as well, was nothing short of amazing. The courage that that took, you talk about a real leader, a real hero, in saving Damar's life. Just admire his strength."

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Published Jan 5, 2023

MIKE MCALLISTER

Title: Publisher All Syracuse Education: Roberts Wesleyan College Location: Syracuse, New York Expertise: Syracuse basketball, football and recruiting. EXPERIENCE Mike McAllister has been covering Syracuse basketball, football and recruiting for more than a decade. Mike's career started with his own free blog as a way to vent following sporting events. Shortly thereafter, a network of basketball sites called Coast 2 Coast Hoops asked him to run their Syracuse site. That site was called Nation of Orange, and Mike quickly established it as a go-to for Syracuse fans. After running Nation of Orange for several months, a position with the Syracuse site on the Scout network became available. After one year as the recruiting expert with Cuse Nation, he was named the publisher. Mike oversaw the transition from Scout to 247Sports, and ran the site on that network for years. Presented with the opportunity to join one of the biggest names in the sports journalism industry, Sports Illustrated, Mike jumped at the chance. All Syracuse was started from scratch by Mike and the Fan Nation team. It has now become a staple for Orange fans of various sports. Mike has broken news on recruiting, Syracuse basketball and football team information and has established himself as the top recruiting inside in the market. He has appeared on local radio shows, television broadcasts, national radio shows and much more. Mr. McAllister has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting and Information Management from Roberts Wesleyan College.