Since Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest in the Monday night game against the Cincinnati Bengals, the outpouring of support has reverberated seemingly everywhere.
Shortly after the injury, fans, teams and NFL players sought ways to support Hamlin. They have gravitated to The Chasing M's Foundation's community toy drive, a charitable effort Hamlin started before being drafted by the Bills. The foundation was nearing $8 million in donations as of Friday afternoon.
Wearing Hamlin's No. 3 jersey has become another way to support him. According to Michael Rubin, the CEO of Fanatics, the NFL's apparel partner, Hamlin's jersey quickly became the No. 1-selling jersey on the site.
One of those looking for the jersey was New York Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner, who met Hamlin earlier this season after the first NFL game they played against each other. Gardner had played in college at Cincinnati with Hamlin's cousin Noah Hamlin. The Jets rookie took to Twitter on Wednesday trying to get a Hamlin jersey.
We got you!!!
— Michael Rubin (@michaelrubin) January 4, 2023
When Rubin replied, Gardner had no idea he was Fanatics' CEO. Gardner was touched by the gesture all the same.
"I thought he just worked for the company," Gardner told ESPN's Rich Cimini. "I appreciate that, though. I absolutely felt the need to do that. It made an impact on me and I was feeling a certain type of way, and I felt like that's what I needed to do."
Fanatics confirmed that Gardner will have his jersey in time for the Sunday game against the Miami Dolphins.
"I'm going to wear it to the game," Gardner said. "I might warm up in it, too."
Rubin told ESPN that the company will be helping Hamlin through its sales.
"I think there was no way that we felt comfortable profiting from that, it was inappropriate. So, we immediately reached out to the NFL and NFL Players Association and said, 'Hey, each of us should contribute all of the profits,'" Rubin said.
"That felt like the only thing to do."
The NFL and NFLPA agreed to contribute their royalties and Fanatics will contribute its profits from the sales. As of Friday morning, the collection was over $400,000. Fanatics has not yet donated the money but plans to do so in the near future.
The NFL and NFLPA have also asked Fanatics to produce 150 T-shirts for each home team to share with the visiting team to wear during pregame warmups Sunday.
The shirts will say "Love for Damar."
"[The injury] was so heart-wrenching to watch it and obviously you want to do anything you can to help in any small way, shape or form possible," Rubin said. "That's why you've got 10,000-plus fans from around the world, not just from Buffalo, from around the world, that have bought his jersey already."