Weaver Shares Tight Bond With Buffalo's Damar Hamlin

The Tennessee Titans outside linebacker and Buffalo Bills safety, who collapsed on the field Monday night, became friends in college at Pitt.

Christopher Hanewinckel / USA Today Sports

NASHVILLE – If Rashad Weaver could see Damar Hamlin right now, there seems to be little doubt about what he would tell his former college teammate. It would be the same thing each has said to the other repeatedly over the past seven years.

“We just always interact and tell each other to keep going,” Weaver said Tuesday.

That sentiment took on a different meaning Monday night when Hamlin, a second-year safety with the Buffalo Bills collapsed on the field during a Monday Night Football game against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bills confirmed that Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest and received life-saving measures on the playing surface before he was transported to a hospital.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Hamlin remained in critical condition at a Cincinnati hospital, according to multiple reports.

Weaver, a second-year outside linebacker with the Tennessee Titans, and Hamlin were part of the same 2016 signing class at Pitt. In fact, Hamlin, a four-star recruit, was the highest rated prospect of the group.

Similarly, both were selected in the 2021 NFL draft. The Titans took Weaver in the fourth round, and Hamlin went to the Bills in the sixth.

Each has his own clothing brand. Weaver’s is called g2r while Hamlin’s is Chasing M’s, short for “Chasing Millions,” according to Weaver.

“We didn’t just play together,” Weaver said. “We were friends. Teammates. I mean, I’ve known him now for seven years. … That’s a guy I talk to, whether it be on social media, texts, Snapchat, anything at least once a week, constantly just telling each other how we see each other doing our thing each week playing.”

Coach Mike Vrabel said the team addressed the incident and encouraged players to share their feelings during Tuesday morning meetings. He added that teammates and coaches are “doing everything we can just to continue to support (Weaver).”

Weaver got emotional as he recounted the moment that led to the postponement of Monday’s game, which had not reached the end of the first quarter, and quickly became a national story.

For many, that probably was the first time they heard the name Damar Hamlin. Not so for Weaver, who knows the person quite well.

“I was just a home, in the living room, watching the football game,” he said. “I missed exactly what happened, but about five seconds later I (saw) the first replay of it and – like everybody else – you kind of sit there and kind of hold your breath and figure out what’s happening.”