Geno Stone has known Damar Hamlin since they competed against each other playing youth football in Pennsylvania.
As Stone told CBS Baltimore, they became friends long before they grew up to become safeties in the NFL. They spent time together this past offseason, and competed against each other again in Week 4, when the Ravens hosted the Bills at M&T Bank Stadium.
For Stone, the past several days have been very difficult for as he prays for Hamlin, the Bills safety who remains in critical condition after suffering a cardiac arrest during Monday night's game.
Hamlin has always been special to the people who know him.
"Just to know what type of person he is, he's a guy that loves his community, loves his family," Stone told CBS Baltimore. "He stayed close to home, he picked [the University of Pittsburgh] just to show all the little kids from around his area what type of person you can be from that area and make it big."
There was an encouraging update Thursday morning on Hamlin, when the Bills released a statement saying that he had made "remarkable improvement" over the past 24 hours, although he remained critically ill.
Stone will continue to pray for Hamlin, a childhood friend who millions are now rooting for.
"I just hope he gets to see the type of impact he made on the world," Stone said. "I just see so many people talking about him now and how woke everyone got from this incident. We're not just players, we're not just entertainers, we're human beings at the end of the day."
