Benjamin Watson, former NFL tight end, Super Bowl champion, and outspoken pro-lifer, shared the gospel during a guest appearance on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 in an interview that took place day after Buffalo Bills defensive safety Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest on the field, an event that shook the football world and the country at large.
At the time of this article, Hamlin remains in the Intensive Care Unit at Cincinnati University Hospital.
Watson shared his conversation with Cooper on Twitter with the caption: “Life can change in the blink of an eye. Damar’s injury has made us all wrestle with this truth. It has served as a reminder of own mortality. While we pray for him as he fights for his life, we must ask ourselves where will we spend eternity? Thanks for this convo.”
The former first round draft pick shared that he and his family were in shock after witnessing Hamlin’s injury Monday night, realizing how serious it was as commercial breaks started to mount.
Cooper pointed out that football is “one of the few professions where a team of people pray before they go out on the field, because part of it is they know the danger that they are facing when they go out on that field.” He then asked Watson whether he thought about the possibility of getting injured when he went would go out onto the field.
“It’s the scary part of the game,” Watson said. “And I think what you saw was just the reaction of players when their brother went down.”
“Part of the reason that we pray before we go out is, number one, for unity,” Watson explained, “but also we understand that we aren’t in control of everything.”
Cooper brought up how Hamlin’s sudden injury is a reminder of how frail human life is and that, in a blink of an eye, life can change for anyone.
“You’re exactly right,” Watson replied. “These times bring us face to face with our own mortality, and we all have a day to be born and we all have a day to die. So often, in between those two points, we feel invincible, whether you’re a professional athlete or whether you’re at the top of your profession, whether you’re feeling healthy, you understand that sometimes there’s a reminder that hey, all of us have an appointment with death.”
Watson explained that this should also make someone ask, “Where are we? Where do our hearts stand? If that were to be us laying on the field over that or to be us laying in the hospital, what what our next steps be?”
