Damar Hamlin: Against All Odds

On January 2, 2023, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed during a Monday Night Football game and went into cardiac arrest—one of the most shocking and horrible moments in sports, if not television, history. Yet just over three months later, Hamlin is getting ready to return to the NFL, and to celebrate, he’s created Against All Odds—an aptly named exclusive playlist for Apple Music featuring songs that inspired him through his miraculous comeback. “The song that got me through the toughest moments was 50 Cent’s ‘Hustler’s Ambition,’” Hamlin tells Apple Music of the track that kicks off his playlist, and the one he considers the most instrumental in spurring his recovery. “One of my favorite movies has always been Get Rich or Die Tryin’—if you know anything about 50 Cent, you know he’s been through a lot as well, surviving nine shots and rebuilding himself. It was one of the first songs I played in the hospital. Then the movie came on during my second or third day awake and the song stuck with me.” Once Hamlin was healthy again and started taking the idea of a return to football seriously, Lil Durk’s “Hanging With Wolves,” from the 2022 Loyal Bros 2 compilation, helped motivate him. “The funny thing about this song was that it wasn’t eye-catching to me when it first came out and I first heard it,” he says. “I went to see Lil Durk perform in Philadelphia, and hearing it live made the song grow on me 10 times more. The energy just gets me going as I’m getting back into the gym.” Check out the rest of Damar Hamlin’s more than four-hour playlist and if you hear something you like, add it to your library.