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Perhaps no one understands the agony Cincinnati Bengals receiver Tee Higgins might have been feeling or was praying harder for Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin’s recovery than Brad Gaines.
Gaines found himself in an eerily similar situation to the incident that gripped the sports world when Hamlin collapsed on the field after tackling Higgins in the first quarter of the Monday Night Football game in Cincinnati.
Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest and his heartbeat was restored on the field. He was transported to University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where he is in critical condition.
It was a nightmarish reminder of a play Gaines, a former Vanderbilt running back, was involved in during the 1989 season, when he was tackled from behind by Ole Miss defensive back Chucky Mullins.
As Gaines and players from both teams returned to their feet, Mullins remained motionless on the field. What had appeared to be a routine hit left the redshirt freshman from Russellville, Alabama, paralyzed from the neck down after suffering broken vertebrae.
Mullins died less than two years later of a pulmonary embolism while in an Oxford hospital.
« I was sick at my stomach; I couldn’t sleep last night, » Gaines said after watching the play where Hamlin tackled Higgins. « It just tore me up. For someone’s life to be left in peril like that after so many things that have to come together to bring about an injury like and they do come together literally makes you want to throw up.
