The Buffalo Bills-Cincinnati Bengals game has been postponed after an injury to defensive back Damar Hamlin that had NFL players in tears on Monday night.

A Buffalo safety, Hamlin tackled Cincinnati wide receiver Tee Higgins on a completion. The Bills defensive back hopped up, but then collapsed as medical personnel rushed to his aid.

ESPN, on its televised coverage of the game, reported that CPR had been administered to Hamlin even as his teammates and opponents knelt and prayed together.

Hamlin was removed from the field by ambulance, and about 25 minutes after the defensive back went down, the game was temporarily suspended with the Bengals leading 7-3 with 5:58 left in the first quarter at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati. The players left the field for their locker rooms shortly after Hamlin left the stadium.

More than one hour after Hamlin’s injury, the NFL announced that the game had been postponed.

“Tonight’s Buffalo Bills-Cincinnati Bengals game has been postponed after Buffalo Bills’ Damar Hamlin collapsed,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement released by the league. “Hamlin received immediate medical attention on the field by team and independent medical staff and local paramedics. He was then transported to a local hospital, where he is in critical condition. Our thoughts are with Damar and the Buffalo Bills. We will provide more information as it becomes available. The NFL has been in constant communication with the NFL Players Association, which is in agreement with postponing the game.”

The NFL did not indicate when or if the game would be resumed.

Hamlin is a second-year safety who became a starter in the Buffalo secondary this season after spending most of his rookie season as a special-teamer. He entered the NFL as a sixth-round choice from Pitt in the 2021 NFL Draft.

With the game nationally televised by ABC and ESPN, NFL teams and players flooded social-media channels with well wishes and calls for prayers for Hamlin. Some of the players called for the game to be stopped.

Monday night’s game is the second prime-time contest in Cincinnati this season in which a player was removed from the field by an ambulance bound for the University of Cincinnati’s medical center, which is about 2 miles from Paycor Stadium.

On Sept. 29, Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a concussion on a sack in the first half of the Dolphins’ game against the Bengals. After the former Alabama All-American was removed via ambulance, that game resumed.

Only one player from an Alabama high school or college is a teammate of Hamlin’s with the Bills – defensive back Siran Neal, a former Eufaula High School and Jacksonville State standout.

The Bengals have four players with Alabama football roots – cornerbacks Allan George (Andalusia) and Cam Taylor-Britt (Park Crossing), kicker Evan McPherson (Fort Payne) and offensive tackle Jonah Williams (Alabama).

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.