Damar Hamlin

Early life

Hamlin was raised in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. He attended Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was named first-team All-State and the Class AAAA Defensive Player of the Year.

College career

Hamlin was considered a top cornerback coming out of Central Catholic High School. He was a four-star recruit and was pursued by major college football programs including Pittsburgh, Penn State, Ohio State and Temple. He selected the Pittsburgh Panthers and played in four games as a freshman in 2016 before suffering an injury and receiving a medical redshirt exception for that year.

As a redshirt freshman playing in his second year in 2017, Hamlin was not back to full health until week three of the football season. Playing the safety position, he recorded 41 tackles with one interception in nine games played.

In 2018, Hamlin led the Panthers "sniper gang" secondary with 77 tackles and two interceptions as a redshirt sophomore and was named honorable mention All-Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).

In 2019, he registered 84 tackles with 10 passes broken up as a redshirt junior.

Going into his final season in 2020, Hamlin was a team captain and was named to the All-ACC second-team after leading the Panthers with 66 tackles and seven passes broken up. He earned ACC Co-Defensive Back of the Week honors for his November 21, 2020, game against Virginia Tech.

Hamlin earned a bachelor's degree in communication from the University of Pittsburgh.

Personal life

In addition to his football career, Hamlin is a fashion entrepreneur, having started a fashion line, Chasing Millions, while at the University of Pittsburgh.

Hamlin made guest cameos as himself in two Hallmark Channel original films, Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story and The More the Merrier, that both premiered in

2025.

Charity

In 2020, Hamlin started organizing annual charity Christmas toy drives in his hometown of McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. The GoFundMe campaign for his 2020 toy drive had set a goal of $2,500.

In the hours following his in-game collapse and medical emergency in January 2023, Hamlin's 2020 GoFundMe campaign for the Chasing M's Foundation toy drive received a massive influx of donations from fans and others. Many of the donations had messages of support for Hamlin. In the days that followed, dozens of NFL players, coaches, and executives donated to the campaign, which grew from its $2,500 goal amount to over $8.7 million as of January 12, 2023. Chasing M's Foundation later updated their GoFundMe message saying the "fundraiser was initially established to support a toy drive for Damar's community," but was "hopeful about Damar's future involvement in disbursing the incredibly generous contributions." On January 12, The Buffalo News had a detailed story covering the enormous changes facing Chasing M's structure and operations in light of the large donations, including its tax-exempt status and governance.

In 2023, Hamlin announced that he and the Chasing M's foundation would fund ten $1,000 scholarships for under-served young people in the Cincinnati area to cover the costs of attending private high school or a local trade school or university. Each of the scholarships were named after a member of the UC medical staff that contributed to Hamlin's recovery. The program is set to run for three years.