'Like everyone was holding their breath': Barrington High grad witnessed Damar Hamlin's collapse

Tyler Lambert's wife, Lyndsy Birchmier, wanted only one thing for Christmas: to see Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow play a game in person.

Lambert, who graduated from Barrington High School, got tickets, and the couple, who live in Missoula, Montana, traveled to Cincinnati for Monday's game between the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals. Then the game took an unexpected turn.

After a five-hour drive from Lambert's family home in Barrington, they were in the stands with more than 60,000 others to witness Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin's on-field cardiac arrest and the subsequent lifesaving efforts by paramedics.

Lambert said the crowd could tell something wasn't right fairly quickly.

"It took the breath away from everyone," Lambert said of seeing an ambulance on the field and players from both teams gathering around. "It was a really bad sinking feeling that something was really not right."

Usually, when a player is helped off the field after an injury, the crowd has an opportunity to applaud as a way to show support for the athlete before returning to watching the game. But Monday night the crowd stayed silent.

"For a good long while, it felt like everyone was holding their breath," Lambert said.

Lambert said cellphone service at the stadium was terrible, likely because everyone was desperate for an update on Hamlin's well-being. Any information spectators in the crowd were able to get came as a result of brief internet access or by word-of-mouth from someone watching the game on TV.

Lambert said that after around 20 minutes of waiting, a smattering of applause started up, likely from some fans learning Hamlin had survived. But because there was no big announcement at the stadium and news wasn't getting to everyone, the cheering quickly died down and it became silent again.

"There was a nervous energy, and people were definitely trying to show support," Lambert said.

After 40 minutes, some fans started to leave, but Lambert and Birchmier waited until the announcement, after about 70 minutes, that the game would not resume Monday night.

Lambert said after Hamlin's injury, "both Bills and Bengals fans put aside the super-competitiveness of the game."

"Everyone came together," he said.