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ESPN Host Gives NFL MVP Vote to Athletic Trainer Who Gave Damar Hamlin CPR

Under the revamped rules for selecting an NFL MVP, voters cast their ballots for five different players for the first time this season, ranking them in order of preference. As a result, one voter had the chance to honor Bills assistant athletic trainer Denny Kellington for his heroic role in Damar Hamlin‘s on-field medical emergency in a rather unique way.

ESPN host Suzy Klober cast her fifth-place MVP vote for Kellington, who performed CPR on Hamlin after the 24-year-old safety collapsed and went into cardiac arrest during a Monday Night Football game against the Bengals earlier this month, according to Rob Maaddi of the Associated Press. Kolber told the AP that the vote was a “symbolic gesture representing ‘everyone’ who carries the weight of that job, every week. They rarely get the recognition they deserve.”

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