ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Safety Damar Hamlin is returning to Buffalo for a sixth season after signing a one-year contract with the team on Friday.
Hamlin was a free agent after his one-year contract expired. And he’s staying in Buffalo where the 28-year-old has served as an inspiration for perseverance following his remarkable comeback after a near-death experience three years ago.
Hamlin has shown no signs of a setback since he went into cardiac arrest and needed to be resuscitated on the field during a game at Cincinnati in January 2023.
Though he was eased back into action in being limited to playing five games the following season, Hamlin had a career-high 14 starts in 2024. He was relegated to a backup role last season and limited to just five games after landing on injured reserve because of a pectoral injury sustained in practice.
Hamlin is expected to compete for a backup spot on a team and defense in transition. Jim Leonhard takes over as coordinator under new coach Joe Brady, who was promoted in January after Sean McDermott was fired.
The Bills have since signed free-agent safeties C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Geno Stone, who are anticipated to compete for the starting job opposite Cole Bishop.
Buffalo selected Hamlin in the sixth round of the 2021 draft out of Pittsburgh. He has two interceptions in 53 career games, including 27 starts.
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FILE 0 Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin (3) defends in the secondary during a preseason NFL football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Saturday Aug. 23, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Peter Joneleit, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A pro-Iranian hacking group claimed Friday to have hacked an account of FBI Director Kash Patel and has posted online what appear to be years-old photographs of him, along with a work resume and other personal documents. Many of those records appeared to be more than a decade old.
“Kash Patel, the current head of the FBI, who once saw his name displayed with pride on the agency’s headquarters, will now find his name among the list of successfully hacked victims,” said a message posted Friday from the group Handala.
The message was accompanied by more than a half dozen photos of Patel, including ones of him standing beside an antique sports car and another with a cigar in his mouth. The group also said that it was making available for download emails and other documents from Patel's account. Many of the records appeared to relate to his personal travels and business from more than 10 years ago
The FBI had no immediate comment on Friday, but a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic information confirmed that a personal email account of Patel's had been breached. It was not clear when the hack claimed by Handala might have occurred, but news reports from December 2024 said that Patel had been informed by FBI that he had been targeted as part of an Iranian hack.
Handala is a pro-Iranian, pro-Palestinian hacking group that earlier this month claimed credit for disrupting systems at Stryker, a Michigan-based medical technology company. Handala said the attack was in retaliation for suspected U.S. strikes that killed Iranian schoolchildren. They’re a prominent example of the proxy groups that carry out cyber attacks on behalf of Iran.
The Justice Department singled out Handala in an announcement last week in which it said it had seized four web domains tied to Iranian hacking schemes and the threatening of dissidents.
Associated Press writer David Klepper in Washington contributed to this report.
FBI Director Kash Patel, listens during a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence hearing to examine worldwide threats, Thursday, March 19, 2026, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
