CHARLOTTE — The way they talk about what happened on Jan. 2, 2023, is very different for three men who went through the same traumatic instant in their lives.
"You don't see a lot of miracles in your life like that. That was a miracle."
"I owe (him) my life. Literally."
"As the events unfolded that night, we had a positive outcome. And now it's our responsibility to continue to just drive home the message that if you know these skills, you have the chance to maybe take care of a loved one, a neighbor, a friend, or more importantly, maybe a complete stranger."
The first one, that's Bills general manager Brandon Beane, talking about seeing one of his players brought back from death.
The second one, that's Bills safety Damar Hamlin, the guy who nearly died.
That third one, that's Denny Kellington. As in, that was him saying it, and it appears that's just who he is. Matter of fact. Underselling his own role in the events of that night, Making it about others, and the larger mission.
Kellington, the Panthers new vice president of player health and performance, is best known as the guy who saved Damar Hamlin's life on national television, by beginning CPR on the field after Hamlin's heart stopped following a hit to the chest.
He's not much for drawing attention to himself, and other than a commencement speech at his alma mater (Oklahoma State), he's spent very little time talking about his role. It's always about the larger group, the medical staffs of two teams, all working together to achieve what sounds anticlimactic when you call it "a positive outcome."
But today's a little different since his new job in a new place gives him a new opportunity to talk about the preparation that can be the difference in life and death.
Kellington will be part of an important day of preparation at Bank of America Stadium on Monday, as team employees will take part in CPR and AED training hosted by the American Heart Association. It's the extension of an effort that began two years ago, when owner Nicole Tepper connected with Hamlin and invited him to appear at the event here where players and staff took part in the same kind of training that saved his life that night in Cincinnati. Today, all those who took part in that training will have a chance to re-certify themselves alongside those learning the skills for the first time.
To learn more about American Heart Association training in your area, click here.
Just like Hamlin, that training is a thing that is extremely close to Denny Kellington's heart.
"I didn't do a ton of events just because, again, we let Demar be the beacon of light for that," Kellington said humbly.
The 47-year-old mentioned that speech in Stillwater, Okla., an hour up the road from his hometown of Midwest City, Okla. Other than that, he made a few appearances in Oklahoma City when the state passed a law requiring cardiac emergency response plans for all public schools, when he was honored at the New York State capitol, or when he meets other athletic trainers who have helped have "positive outcomes," he's managed to keep a low profile.
For Denny Kellington, the work is the most important thing.
"Just highlighting those has been a blessing," he said. "And I mean, at the end of the day, I've trained for this for 20-some-odd years, and we were all called upon that night, and we all acted as a strong team and came together to render care to our player."
Beane has watched Kellington undersell this for years, which is part of the reason he was so enthusiastic about his former associate athletic trainer coming here for a promotion this offseason. Beane has a background in the Carolinas, growing up an hour away from Bank of America Stadium and rising through the ranks with the Panthers from intern to assistant GM before going to Buffalo with head coach Sean McDermott in 2017.
"You can always find people that have talents in whatever it is, scouting, coaching, athletic training. But first and foremost, he's a good man, and he is about the team," Beane said of Kellington.
Beane described Kellington as someone he could rely on for honesty. When head athletic trainer Nathan Breske traveled with Von Miller for a surgery, Kellington was the guy in the daily football meetings who had to tell coaches whether guys would be available. Beane said Kellington showed him during those days that he was ready for the kind of job Panthers GM Dan Morgan hired him to do this offseason.
"Denny will give Dan and Dave (Canales) clarity," Beane said.
That word comes up often when people talk about Kellington and the night that thrust him into the spotlight, whether he wanted it or not. But Beane recalled, as Kellington stressed, the need to be clear-headed when things went wrong and ready in case they do or don't.
"Thinking about that whole thing still sends chills up my spine," Beane said, a reasonable reaction. "But watching those guys work, one of the things that I told people is what's so impressive about what those guys did as a team. You don't get a lot of practice reps at that. Like, we go out and practice every day to play a game and you get all sorts of practice reps. You don't get those kinds of reps.
"And not only did this not happen somewhere in practice, this happened in front of the whole world. To flawlessly do what those guys did. From our assistant equipment guy getting his facemask off. You know, your hands can be shaking, there's small screws in there. To what these guys did, if they weren't communicating the way they were communicating, I mean his life, I mean he was dead. And then, after that, those guys, they were obviously thrilled that they saved his life.
"They got a lot of praise, but they all were just like, that's our job, that's our job. And I think it's admirable as a group, they all pointed to each other."
Hamlin, as you might imagine, has a more intimate interpretation.
When he appeared on ABC's Good Morning America weeks later, he was clear about one thing.
"I owe Denny my life. Literally," Hamlin told GMA's Michael Strahan. "He loves to say he was just doing his job. But, . . . that night, he was literally the savior of my life, you know, administering CPR on me.
"If it wasn't for someone showing up that day with a clear mind and whatever's going on in their personal life, just to put it aside and just to be present in the moment to actually be able to do their job correctly — that's something I'm truly thankful for, and I don't take for granted."
Being able to have that kind of clarity has to come from somewhere, and for Kellington, it appears to have come from growing up seeing what service to others meant on a daily basis.
Both of his grandfathers served in wars. His father and uncle were in the military. His mother, Donna, was a nurse. So he saw what it looked like his whole life, to give of yourself to others and to protect.
"Just having that work ethic, that drive, that determination to run towards problems, not away from them type of mentality, it was just based on my experience and my training and preparation," Kellington said simply. "All that was ingrained in my mind, way before I ever got involved in athletic training."
The role of an athletic trainer begins with things as simple as taping ankles and goes from there. Hamlin said in a recent interview with Bills reporters that while their context revolves around that one big event, his relationship with Kellington was built on so many little things along the way.
"Denny meant the world to me," Hamlin said, via the Buffalo News. "Every morning coming in our 7 a.m. stretch, full body stretch, to Denny cracking my toes, to cracking my neck, to just stretching my whole body out. Our one-on-one talks we'd always have, Denny was one of the most locked-in people, one of the most focused on his craft individually that I've ever met.
"He's helped me through a lot of small injuries that I've had under the radar to keep me going and keep me feeling the best I can feel. I love Denny. He's definitely a stand-up human being."
Of course, it all comes back to that one night, and when Kellington talks about it, he almost sounds like he's describing a simple stretch or toe-cracking. His version is not about the dramatic events. It's about all the less-exciting ones that lead to what they hope will be a positive outcome.
Athletic training and medical staffs meet before every NFL game. They talk about procedures and processes, things as mundane as the location of equipment, to where an ambulance is parked and where the nearest trauma center is. If it becomes routine, it's supposed to, because checking every box and doing the right things the same way every day is how you prepare and how you become prepared.
"It may be routine, but it's also a checkpoint just to make sure we all are on the same page and prepared for a worst-case scenario, and then if it doesn't occur, then that's OK," Kellington said. "So we don't take it lightly. All members of the medical team at every stadium know that that is extremely important.
"But then also the fact that the NFL has highlighted that so many times over and over, that allows colleges and even high schools and middle schools to understand just having that pregame time out, whether it's 60 minutes like the league does or five to 10 minutes like the high school athletic trainer that hardly has any resources. You pull the two coaches from two teams, you get the referees involved, and you have a plan of action just in case something was to happen."
And that's what today's training event is about. Having that plan. Training people in life-saving techniques and equipment that could save a life.
Kellington learned CPR when he began college in 1996 and re-certifies every two years (or as local rules require in the state which he's in at the time). Now, he's bringing his training and his message to a new team. He's been here since February, getting established in his new office, waiting for his wife Jennifer and two children, Sydney and Bryton, to get here in July.
But no matter where he goes or no matter who he's around, for Denny Kellington, the memories of Damar Hamlin and that night in Cincinnati are never far away.
He still talks to Hamlin regularly. Now that they don't see each other every day, they text often, just two people whose stories are intertwined checking in on each other.
"It's a bond that will never go away," Kellington said.
They'll always be tied together, and if any attention comes from that, Kellington wants to steer it toward the training so that someone else can play the kind of role he played in someone else's life.
"I guess it's just synonymous now, you know, when you look up Damar, you're going to find my name. When you look up my name, you're going to find his name," Kellington said. "So I don't think too much about it, honestly, in regards to notoriety or anything of that nature; I look at it as a platform to be able to push for the importance of AED access, having a plan, having a cardiac emergency response team available if you can.
"I mean, there are so many kids that, unfortunately, whether they're in underserved committees that don't even have access to an AED on the youth fields, you know, so those are some of the things I like to highlight."
For Denny Kellington, it's always about others. It's always about having a plan.
And it's always about being prepared.
