Photo courtesy of MLB.com.
In celebration of a new year full of truth, we will delve into a variety of conspiracies within the sports world. As an analytical scientist, it’s difficult to don the tin foil hat, but as someone who is objective to a fault and sees the world in gray instead of black and white, I may be just the person to break down the hard to explain. Let’s talk conspiracies. Is Damar Hamlin dead and replaced with a body double or clone?
Background:
Damar Hamlin was playing in week 17 of the 2022-2023 season as a Buffalo Bills safety against the Cincinnati Bengals. January 2nd, 2023 specifically. Hamlin tackled Bengals Tee Higgins to the ground in what appeared to be a routine play. The safety got up post-tackle and then collapsed again. Anyone who watched the play in real time can remember how terrifying it was. We all knew something was wrong when he fell backwards very, very hard. Some of us guessed concussion; few knew that it was far more serious.
The referee and No. 28 of the Bengals definitely didn’t know they were dodging the fall of a dead man. Hamlin’s heart had stopped. The CPR clued in fans that something was wrong with Hamlin’s ticker, with the diagnosis of cardiac arrest being confirmed on January 3rd by the team. Months later, we discovered a more specific diagnosis—commotio cordis. Hamlin’s heart stopped suddenly due to blunt trauma in the chest at a specific time of the heartbeat cycle. The condition Commotio Cordis is extremely rare.
NFL fans alike are haunted by the image of Damar Hamlin being worked on for minutes, with a stretcher and ambulance waiting until he was stabilized. The tears, the crying, the praying. If you want to watch the entire scary sequence from start to finish, you can watch it here.
Conspiracy:
The theory was that Damar Hamlin died at some point. Either for the first time (his heart never started again) or the second time (he passed away in the ambulance or the hospital). It’s unclear what the prevailing thought was. Allegedly, he was replaced with a body double. It appears Hamlin alluded to that when he posted an image on Instagram where he stood next to a mural of himself and captioned it “clone.”
The reasoning behind this thought process was that the COVID vaccine was killing people suddenly and the powers that be were obscuring the facts. Hamlin was an example of someone who passed away from the vaccine. It’s not stated implicitly, but it appears that the NFL, big pharma, and whoever else wanted to hide this fact from the American people. The use of a body double was to continue to deceive people about the dangers of the vaccine.
Hamlin attending a game just 20 days after the incident with his face obscured with glasses and a ski mask seemed to bolster the theory. Photos where some of his tattoos were allegedly missing, this “CGI” video he posted, and his evasive answers in interviews ignited rumors.
Thoughts:
My initial thought is that Commotio Cordis results in cardiac arrest for 30 individuals every year. It’s rare, but not unheard of. It’s a more than feasible story. People can sometimes be shocked by how quickly someone can recover from cardiac arrest. Damar Hamlin is a healthy 24-year-old who was only medically dead for a short period of time. It’s not hard to believe that either.
Obscuring his face 20 days after the hit could be because he didn’t feel well, was particularly sensitive to cold and light, or was feeling like he didn’t want to be fully seen for whatever reason. Weirder things have happened in January in upstate New York. Can we also avoid shaming people for not speaking about their medical information?
In terms of the vaccine, there are holes there too. One, we don’t even know if Hamlin received the COVID vaccination. He likely did since there were still rules about testing and vaccinations in his first season (2021-2022). However, there were caveats for vaccines even at that time. Assuming he did receive the vaccination at some point, wouldn’t his dying on the field and being in a medical coma in a hospital be terrifying enough to educate the people about the theorists fears of the COVID shot? Getting a body double sounds complicated and expensive for limited gain.
Final, Final Thoughts
Often fear (in this case, the pandemic, vaccines, a player dying on the field in front of millions) can lead people to try to find explanations for things they can’t fully understand to feel more comfortable. Humans can do and think some really irrational things when they are reacting out of fear.
We are also aware that the government is not transparent about what’s actually going on in many circumstances. Sometimes we never know or receive half-truths many decades later from the powers that be. However, someone putting their energy into one conspiracy may distract us from something very real happening elsewhere. Distractions are not unheard of. Humans are built with an ingrained bullshit meter. Use that meter, science, logic, and skepticism when considering if a theory is possible.
Do you agree with my take? Are there some parts of the theory that I got wrong? Sound off below. Body doubles are welcome to weigh in too. For more of my eccentric work, click here.
