Bills fans gather at Thirsty Pallet to watch game, celebrate Damar Hamlin

Freddie Torres was with his wife doing their weekly grocery shopping at a Walmart in Greensboro on Saturday, all decked out in his Buffalo Bills gear, when a woman got out of a checkout line and approached him.

"She got out of line and walked over to me to ask me how our player was," said Torres, referring to Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin, who went into cardiac arrest during last Monday night's game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

"She goes, ‘I seen what happened to him. I just want to know how he's doing,’" he said. "And I looked at her. I said ‘You’re a fan?’ She said, ‘No ... compassion.’"

The Winston-Salem branch of the Bills Mafia gathered at the Thirsty Pallet on Fourth Street as they always do to watch their favorite team. But Sunday's matchup with the New England Patriots carried added significance. It was the first action for the Bills since a national television audience and a stadium crowd watched in stunned silence as emergency personnel performed CPR on Hamlin as he lay on the field. He was resuscitated and taken to a Cincinnati hospital.

Callie the dog is decked out for the Buffalo Bills game against New England with her owner, Jennifer Cotto-Ecklund, on Sunday at the Thirsty Pallet in downtown Winston-Salem.

Football fans joined others from across the nation and the world awaiting any word on Hamlin's condition. Two days ago, doctors removed his breathing tube and he eventually had a Facetime meeting with his teammates. On Sunday, players and coaches across the National Football League wore "Love for Damar 3" t-shirts in a league-wide show of support. All throughout the stadium where the Bills play, fans were seen holding signs with the number "3" or with Hamlin's name, along with well-wishes.

The Bills defeated the Patriots, 35-23, The loss, coupled with Miami beating the New York Jets, eliminated the Patriots from the playoffs for the second time in three years. The Bills will play the Dolphins in the wild card round.

Torres is a Buffalo native who moved from Florida to Greensboro eight months ago. When he couldn't find a bar in Greensboro to hang out with fellow Bills fan, he came to Winston-Salem and found the spot run by Eric Zyglis and his wife. Zyglis said the mood in his bar last Monday night was somber.

"Right after it happened and we knew that things were not going well, we all did a prayer in the back just to look out for the young man," Zyglis said. "We’re just happy that this man ... looks like he's coming around."

Zyglis said Bills fans and Buffalo natives have been coming into his bar to reminisce about their hometown. He said the incident has left an impression on him.

Jan 8, 2023; Orchard Park, New York, USA; Buffalo Bills fans show support for Damar Hamlin before a game against the New England Patriots at Highmark Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Konezny-USA TODAY Sports

"Just thinking about him, and honestly, thinking about player safety in general in the game," he said. "I’ve never seen anything like that on live television. That was a shocker for me."

Jeanne Dowling moved to Winston-Salem from Buffalo 18 months ago. Sitting at the bar, the home healthcare nurse said that while she's used to seeing emergency room situations unfold, the moment with Hamlin was different for her. What also struck Dowling was the unity that resulted from people hoping and praying that he regain his health.

"The country has been so broken for a couple of years now since COVID," she said. "And I just think that to see all the NFL teams, players, fans come together in prayer for this young man just shows that we can be a unified country again."

Buffalo fans who enter the Thirsty Pallet can watch the game on a projection television at the back of the business, either standing and watching or sitting at high-top tables or on benches. Just before the players ran onto the field at Highmark Stadium, one of the Bills fans in the TV room hung a team flag to the left of the screen, and when the players ran out of the tunnel, the local fans joined the fans in Buffalo in loud cheers.

The room erupted when Nyheim Hines, the former N.C. State standout and Garner native, took the opening kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown. The mood changed when the Patriots tied the score, and the fans inside the TV room urged that the flag be taken down and reversed for good luck because a tag on the flag was facing the room and deemed to be a jinx.

Hines added a 101-yard kickoff return in the third quarter.

Jennifer Cotto-Ecklund moved to Winston-Salem from Buffalo more than five years ago, and she brought her dog, Callie, with her to the bar. Callie was decked out in a Bills jersey.

Cotto-Ecklund said her sister, who lives in Buffalo, took special interest in Hamlin's condition because she is a parent.

"Obviously, Demar's mother and thinking about her, and he's so young. He's only 24 years old. And so I think it impacted everyione," she said. "Even if you aren't a football fan, everybody's kind of a Bills fan in Buffalo, and so when someone in our community is harmed or is not well or something like this happens, the full community rallies around them and it impacts everybody."

Dowling said Hamlin's recovery shows the power of prayer and that it "gives her the chills." Torres, the son of a preacher, said the outpouring of love and support for Hamlin reinforced his personal faith.

"And Dad always told me, "God will always look out for you, no matter what,’" he said. "No matter what you’ve done in your life, God will always be there for you. And he was there for Damar."

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