Hamlin's decision was a 'no-brainer'

In mid-January - what seems like a lifetime ago - Damar Hamlin had to make a life-changing decision.

Down one path was the next step in his career. He had finished his four years of eligibility at Pitt with a game-high 13 tackles and an interception in the Panthers’ last-minute Quick Lane Bowl win over Eastern Michigan in December and the call of the NFL beckoned.

Down the other path was a return to Pitt for one more season. Hamlin had played in each of the four seasons from 2016-19, technically expiring his eligibility. But he applied to the NCAA for a waiver to play a fifth season since his freshman year was cut short by injury, and the NCAA signed off.

Hamlin was in Tampa training for the East-West Shrine Game when he got the news that his waiver was approved. But that was just the first step. Then the McKees Rocks native had to make his decision:

Return or move on?

“I had to think about it for a little while,” Hamlin said after Pitt started training camp 2020 last week. “I had to weigh my options, talk to some people, talk to my family, my dad, my mom and then ultimately talk to my coaches. Once I got that all hashed out, figured out what I wanted to do, me and my family felt like it was best to come back for another year.”

The decision was announced via Pitt’s Twitter feed on Jan. 15, making Hamlin the fourth Panther to choose to return for one more season rather than leave for the NFL. He joined defensive end Patrick Jones, defensive tackle Jaylen Twyman and fellow safety Paris Ford in that regard, and Hamlin said that the decisions of those players influenced his own choice.

“Besides all the draft stuff and everything, the only factor was playing this season with my brothers, playing this season with guys like Patrick,” Hamlin said. “Patrick was one of the main people who had the option to come back - he was really the first person on the team that I talked to about it. He was the first person to text me, like, ‘Yo, come back.’ And there was no question. We might have talked twice, and that’s all it took for the decision to be made. Because he was making that decision, a few other people were making that decision - Paris, Jaylen - once I saw everybody was already on board and I saw the potential of what we could be and how I know we are going to be this season, it was a no-brainer. It was a no-brainer.”

A significant aspect of the “no-brainer” was returning to play one more season in Pitt’s defense. In 2019, the Panthers ranked No. 3 in the ACC in scoring defense and total defense, and they led the nation and the conference in sacks. But 2019 was just the beginning; with premier starters returning at all three levels of the defense, there was every reason to expect Pitt to take another step forward in 2020 - not just as a defense, but as a team.

Hamlin wanted to be a part of that, and defensive coordinator Randy Bates believes his presence alone can have a big impact. Hamlin will be a fifth-year senior and a third-year starter this fall, a safety who led Pitt in tackles two years ago and was a key cog in the defense last season.

But, what Hamlin does off the field is just as important as what he does between the sidelines, according to Bates.

“He gives me experience, leadership and all of those intangibles that come with that,” Bates said last week. “I can go to him and tell him where I’m going to go today with how I’m going to treat the team, how I’m going to attack the defense from a mentality standpoint, and then he can back me up and talk to them afterward. It’s really great that they’re listening to me talk, but when they’re listening to him and especially all of our older leaders, I think the younger kids embrace it better when they hear it from their peers than when they do from me.

“So I would say that’d be the number one thing, that there’s rarely a time that I speak about something and he doesn’t totally get where I’m coming from and then back it up with something that he’s got experience-wise.”

That experience paid off in a big way last season when Hamlin was able to serve as a mentor of sorts for Ford, who was a first-year starter at safety. Ford was one of Pitt’s best overall players in 2019, thanks in no small part to the guidance he received from Hamlin.

“Oh, without question,” Bates said of Hamlin’s influence on Ford. “He’s got a couple more years of experience and he passes that experience along to Paris. And I think they both feed off of each other. It’s fun to watch two Pittsburgh guys running that secondary and being leaders and playing with a high level of emotion and excitement. There’s days they get me really juiced up.”

Hamlin and Ford, of course, have more in common than just being a safety tandem. They’re both local products, WPIAL stars who decided to stay home and play for Pitt. That adds a little something extra to their success - and it can have an impact on up-and-coming players in the WPIAL.

“The nice thing with Damar is that, here’s a Pittsburgh guy giving back to Pittsburgh football,” Bates said. “That’s the thing I think is the biggest excitement for me: all the people in Pittsburgh obviously relate to him, they’re excited about him, they saw him in high school, so I think the whole city is excited about him coming back.”

“I think it’s a huge impact,” Hamlin said. “I say this in the most humble way, but [young local players], they pay attention to everything we do because right now we’re in the shoes that they want to be in. We know that they pay attention to everything that we do, just how when we were in that position, we paid attention to everything that the guys in front of us were doing, like James Conner and Tyler Boyd, Aaron Donald, (Jordan) Whitehead, guys like that.

“As you go up and level up, you know that the people coming underneath you are looking at you.”