ALLEN PARK — The man he wanted to be tugged at Hamilton’s shirt, begging him to turn around and keep pushing. He offered the hope that things were different now. After getting cut by the Detroit Lions in 2022, the former linebacker still believed his time was coming, even if the last few years had drained his love of the game.

When you play this game your entire life and get this unbelievably close — closer than 1% of 1% of football players will ever get — to finally trading the sacrifice and work and pain and discipline for the chance to compete at the highest level and earn life-changing money in the process, letting go can feel like betrayal.

So there he was, panicking, because he was trying to be everyone at once.

Nine days after getting cut by Detroit, on Sept. 1, Hamilton official

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