UPDATE: Bills' Safety Damar Hamlin Awake; Communicates With the Team

Hamlin spoke to his teammates and coaches during the team meeting via facetime on Friday morning, where he managed to say three words. “Love you guys,” he said.

His physicians said on Thursday that removing the breathing tube was an important step toward his recovery and getting him home to be with his family. Hamlin collapsed to the ground during the 1st quarter after a routine tackle on Cincinnati Bengals Wide Receiver Tee Higgins. Medical personnel had to administer CPR for several minutes before an ambulance took him to a local hospital. According to the Bills, Hamlin had his heartbeat restored on the field before transporting him to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for further treatment.

Bills head coach Sean McDermott said it would be hard to "do it justice honestly with words" in describing the scene when Hamlin spoke to the team on Friday.

"Amazing, touching to see Damar, No. 1, through my own eyes," McDermott said. "That's something that I've been looking forward to, kinda needing to see, I guess -- hate to say it that way, it sounds bad. But to watch the reaction in the room with the players and the staff and the team, they didn't know that we were going to do that and wanted to make sure that that was actually going to be able to happen with Damar's medical schedule there,” McDermott said.

“When I said we had a treat in store, you could see the look on their eyes in anticipation of what was probably coming. To get the Zoom, and when he came on the screen. Tabani (Richards), our assistant trainer, has done a phenomenal job out there helping facilitate that this morning as well -- to see the players' reaction, they stood up right away and clapped for him and yelled some things to him, and it was a pretty cool exchange for a few seconds there."

"The thing that makes me laugh is he did this to the guys right away (flexes to camera). He flexed on 'em, I guess. He's just got some staple things that they know him for and that he does. He made the heart symbol probably more than anything; then, he gave them a thumbs up. Somewhere in the midst of that -- and it was a little bit hard to hear, as you'd imagine -- he said, 'I love you, boys.' Of course, I think that got the guys,” McDermott said. 

The NFL announced yesterday that they canceled the Week 17 matchup between the Bengals and Bills. NFL owners are discussing several different playoff scenarios for the AFC because of the cancellation.