There were times over the past seven months when Damar Hamlin probably thought there would never be another day like the one he experienced Monday morning at St. John Fisher University.

Strapping full football pads onto his 6-foo-, 200-pound medical miracle of a body and initiating contact with his Buffalo Bills teammates certainly would have seemed like a fantasy back in January when he was fighting for his life, let alone his football career, after going into cardiac arrest on the field at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati.

Even into April, as he was making the rounds to see various heart specialists, there were some doubts about whether he’d be medically cleared to resume playing the game he loves so yes, Monday was an emotional moment for the 25-year-old safety.

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“It feels amazing,” Hamlin told a horde of reporters as his family, visiting from Pittsburgh to watch the first padded Bills practice of the summer, looked on with pride. “It’s a roller-coaster of emotions. I pretty much lost my life playing this sport, so to come back and do it all over again, it’s all over the place just kind of being back for the first time. But God don’t make no mistakes. As much as the NFL is on schedule and camp starts this day, this is all God’s timing.”

Hamlin worked without restriction for most of the offseason program after he was given clearance, and that continued for the first four days of training camp. But Monday was the first time the team was in pads and there was much more contact as it worked through the script of plays and drills.

It was the closest Hamlin has been to actual football since that horrific Jan. 2 night on Monday Night Football when a nation watched him collapse and be resuscitated back to life, and he didn’t seem to miss a beat (no pun intended) as he was active in the secondary and showed no signs of trepidation.

“In football, you can’t hit that field with hesitation,” he said. “You’re putting yourself in more danger by doing that. I made the choice to play, but I’m processing a thousand emotions. I’m not afraid to say that it crosses my mind of being a little scared here and there, but like I say, my strength is rooted in my faith and my faith is stronger than any fear.

“So, first day in pads, just trying to keep everything as normal as possible. And just having my family here today, that was that joy, that brightness, just to keep everything in perspective that I’m going to be OK.”

Before all of this happened, Hamlin was a sixth-round draft pick out of Pitt who earned a spot on the Bills 2021 roster as a rookie playing special teams, then stepped into a more prominent role in 2022 when safety Micah Hyde suffered a season-ending neck injury in Week 2.

Hamlin was beginning to make a name for himself as he performed admirably while replacing a great veteran player, starting 13 games and getting in on 88 tackles. But it was that last tackle, when he drilled Bengals receiver Tee Higgins over the middle, got to his feet, and then tumbled back to the turf, that changed the course of his life.

He suffered from what is called commotio cordis, a rare cardiac arrest that occurs immediately following a blow to the chest which induces a potentially lethal heart rhythm disturbance, or arrhythmia, called ventricular fibrillation.

Thanks to the skilled and rapid response of the Bills’ medical staff, with trainer Denny Killington performing CPR, Hamlin survived the incident and after spending four days hospitalized in Cincinnati, he returned to Buffalo staring at a long road to recovery, but a road he clearly saw leading him back to the Bills.

“Right now my goal is just one day at a time,” he said. “Even my big goals, honestly, I can’t even focus on those right now, so my goal is focusing on one period, one second, one play, one step at a time. My big goals, I can’t even mention them right now because I’ll be in the wrong headspace even thinking about them. Thinking that far down the line, it makes me not lose focus, but it puts emotions inside of me that I don’t even need to be dealing with or processing right now.”

Of course, so much good has actually come from this incredible period in his life. Thanks to the generosity of so many, more than $10 million was donated to his Chasing M’s Foundation which is dedicated to the development, health and safety of youth through sports, engagement activities, training and programming.

And it has raised awareness on the importance of CPR training and AED machines that can save lives the way Hamlin’s was saved that night.

“I feel like it’s a personal mission to travel the world and get everybody CPR certified,” he said. “Over the offseason this year we went into Pittsburgh, we did Buffalo and we did Cincinnati events through my foundation as far as getting as many people as we can in the city CPR certified and donating AEDs to the local youth sports leagues across the town.

“I couldn’t conquer the world in one offseason, but we’re in the works of planning so many more cities as far as next year and in years to come. So that will be my mission forever because it’s so important and it’s so effective and it affected me directly. That’s how you find purpose, you know what I’m saying? By going through something and then learning from it and making the world a better place from things like that.”

Buffalo Bills training camp: Depth chart, and Sal Maiorana's 53-man roster picks

As for football, Hamlin has a battle on his hands to make the 53-man Bills roster. With Hyde and Jordan Poyer both back and Taylor Rapp signed as a free agent, competition is as tight as it has been since Hamlin has been here as he competes against Dean Marlowe, Zayne Anderson and Cam Lewis for what will likely be the fourth safety spot.

But really, after what he has been through and overcome, would anyone truly bet against Hamlin making this team?

“After going through such a traumatic situation, to be able to come out here and compete again at the highest level in the world, that’s such a blessing and that’s such a blessed space to be in,” he said. “I always take a second to keep things in perspective that ultimately, like, life is bigger than football but this is what I love to do. So to be able to do what I love again, at the highest level, is just a blessing.”

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana and on Threads @salmaiorana1. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which will come out every Friday during training camp, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Damar Hamlin competes in first padded practice since cardiac arrest