When safety Damar Hamlin joined Buffalo last season, cornerback Levi Wallace said the sixth-round draft pick from Pitt’s “smile lit up practice every day.”

Wallace and Hamlin are no longer teammates, but that didn’t shield the former Alabama standout when Hamlin’s heart stopped during the Bills’ game against the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday night.

Hamlin was revived on the field, and reports indicate he is recovering at University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

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“The character that he has,” Wallace said Wednesday. “He came in super-humble, he reminded me of myself. He wanted to learn and soak up, and he’s having such an amazing season this year.”

After joining Buffalo as an undrafted rookie in 2018, Wallace started all 52 games that he played with Buffalo over four seasons. He joined the Pittsburgh Steelers as a free agent in March.

When Wallace and Hamlin were teammates, the younger player was primarily a special-teamer, with 50 defensive snaps and 125 special-teams plays during his rookie campaign.

In 2022, 10-year veteran Micah Hyde sustained a season-ending neck injury in Buffalo’s second game, and Hamlin filled his spot in the starting lineup. With 91 tackles, Hamlin is tied for second on the team this season.

“I just know from last year and getting to know him and his family, he’s a special guy,” Wallace said. “You can tell just how much this sport means to him. I’m praying for him each day and checking in on his status as often as I can.”

Wallace has many ties to Buffalo, so he’s feeling for his former teammates, coaches and support staff with the Bills.

“I’m part of that family still, especially that DB room because those are my guys,” Wallace said. “At the same time, they need to heal, too. We saw it from a TV perspective. I can only imagine seeing it live like they did.

“I texted them and said they didn’t need to text me back. We talked, but I want to give them their space. It’s different seeing it on TV and knowing him as opposed to being there and seeing the raw emotion.”

But as with the Bills, Wallace will be returning to the field on Sunday when the Steelers play the Cleveland Browns in their regular-season finale.

“We still have a game this week,” Wallace said. “And so, you know, my teammates and my attention need to be here as well, too.”

But getting back to game action could be different this time around, Wallace said, for him and other players in the NFL.

“You get to a point where injuries are natural,” Wallace said. “It’s what you sign up with. When it gets taken that far, I don’t think we’ve processed that something could happen to that magnitude. It definitely messes with you a little bit. It’s different seeing that. All you can do is hope for the best for him and try to figure out why it happened and try to prevent it from ever happening again, if that’s possible.”

The Browns and Steelers square off at noon CST Sunday at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh.

The Steelers still have a chance to make the AFC playoff field, but Pittsburgh needs to defeat Cleveland while the New England Patriots lose to the Buffalo Bills and the Miami Dolphins lose to the New York Jets on Sunday for that to happen.

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