Steelers Defender Releases a Statement After Insensitive CPR Celebration Draws Hate After Damar Hamlin Incident

The past week in the NFL, fans witnessed one of the scariest incidents to ever take place not just this season but in the NFL in general. Bills safety, Damar Hamlin collapsed to the ground after successfully tackling a Bengals player during his team’s game week 17 clash against the Cincinnati Bengals. Damar Hamlin was transported to a hospital quickly, where it was revealed that he had a cardiac arrest. 

The whole week leading up to the final regular game week of the season has been emotional for the Bills as well as the wider NFL community as well. Almost every team had some sort of a gesture to pay respects to Damar Hamlin and to urge him to fight on. However, in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ final game a celebration by linebacker Alex Highsmith drew a lot of hate given what had just happened and the sensitivity of the event. 

Alex Highsmith pays his respects to Damar Hamlin 

Highsmith drew the ire of the NFL community after his CPR celebration following a sack on Watson. Alex was celebrating a sack on Deshaun Watson when he got on his back and Steelers lineman Demarvin Leal rushed over to give him fake chest compressions. Given what had happened a few days back it was understandable that fans did not approve of the celebration at all. 

Highsmith has since put out a statement giving his side of the story. He said, “I just don’t want people to think of me that way and think I was doing anything [intentional]. Because I would never, ever, ever, ever want to do that intentionally, and I never, ever would do that. I just want people to know that I have nothing but love for Damar and his family.”

Highsmith continued, “When that happened, I was shook for a couple days. Me and my wife, we were watching the game, we immediately saw it and intentionally started praying, intentionally prayed for him, his parents, the doctors, the nurses. I just want people to know that there was nothing intentional about that. It was never planned. None of that.”

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