Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin is teaming up with the American Heart Association on a new CPR initiative. The McKees Rocks native and University of Pittsburgh alum says the goal is to increase CPR awareness and education.Hamlin went into cardiac arrest after making a tackle during a game on Jan. 2. First responders initiated CPR and other treatments within 10 minutes."CPR saved my life earlier this year on the field, and CPR could easily save your life or someone you love," Hamlin said in a video on his social media.One person who knows what it's like having a scare on the field is former Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier, who suffered a spinal cord injury in a game on Dec. 4, 2017."Just for the team to crowd around him, to see how guys were crying, you knew that it was something extremely serious going on," Shazier told Pittsburgh's Action News 4, talking about Hamlin's injury.Shazier is five years removed from his playing days in Pittsburgh, but he knows exactly what was happening to Hamlin last month in Cincinnati."My wife's father is a nurse, and he was like, 'I think he's having a heart attack or cardiac arrest,'" Shazier said.Though Hamlin's episode was different from the spinal injury Shazier suffered, the circumstances were eerily similar and shook Shazier.Both happened on a Monday night and against the Cincinnati Bengals at the same stadium."Nothing brought me back like Damar," Shazier said. "It was kind of same place, same time. It was literally like a week after I got hurt or something. It was extremely too close to where it was going off for me.""It definitely hit me pretty hard. I could not sleep that night because it kind of brought back dark memories for me. Just made me think about when I got hurt, the feelings I had when I got hurt, after my surgery, and then literally every single moment of rehab I had to do until this moment. It was kind of a flash before my eyes."Shazier is hopeful that Hamlin will make a full recovery and that we never have to witness again what we saw last month in Cincinnati."It was not a good moment for me, just to see another brother in that situation. It just hit way too close to home for me," he said.Shazier said he reached out to Hamlin last weekend. He hopes the two will be able to connect and discuss their common experience.