Michael Utley (born December 20, 1965) is a former
American footballAmerican football, known in the United States and Canada simply as football, and often as Gridiron or Tackle football outside North America, is a competitive team sport known for combining strategy with physical play. The objective of the game is to score points by advancing the ball into the...
player. He is known for being
paralyzedParalysis is the complete loss of muscle function for one or more muscle groups. Paralysis can cause loss of feeling or loss of mobility in the affected area.-Causes:Paralysis is most often caused by damage to the nervous system, especially the spinal cord...
during an NFL game.
Utley was an offensive lineman with the
Detroit LionsThe Detroit Lions are an American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League , and play their home games at Ford Field in downtown Detroit....
, picked in the third round of the
1989 NFL DraftThe 1989 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 23 and April 24 , 1989...
. In his rookie year, Utley became the starting right guard for the Lions. He started the first five games, but was injured in the fifth game against the
Minnesota VikingsThe Minnesota Vikings are a professional football team based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vikings compete in the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . Prior to divisional realignment in 2002, they had been a member of the Central Division, also...
. Utley was put on
injured reserveThe injured reserve list is a list of reserved players who are injured and unable to play for a period of time, used most prominently in the National Hockey League and National Football League. It is used so that player does not take up a roster spot. In football, when a player is placed on the...
for the rest of the year.
Michael Utley (born December 20, 1965) is a former
American footballAmerican football, known in the United States and Canada simply as football, and often as Gridiron or Tackle football outside North America, is a competitive team sport known for combining strategy with physical play. The objective of the game is to score points by advancing the ball into the...
player. He is known for being
paralyzedParalysis is the complete loss of muscle function for one or more muscle groups. Paralysis can cause loss of feeling or loss of mobility in the affected area.-Causes:Paralysis is most often caused by damage to the nervous system, especially the spinal cord...
during an NFL game.
NFL career
Utley was an offensive lineman with the
Detroit LionsThe Detroit Lions are an American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League , and play their home games at Ford Field in downtown Detroit....
, picked in the third round of the
1989 NFL DraftThe 1989 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 23 and April 24 , 1989...
. In his rookie year, Utley became the starting right guard for the Lions. He started the first five games, but was injured in the fifth game against the
Minnesota VikingsThe Minnesota Vikings are a professional football team based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vikings compete in the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . Prior to divisional realignment in 2002, they had been a member of the Central Division, also...
. Utley was put on
injured reserveThe injured reserve list is a list of reserved players who are injured and unable to play for a period of time, used most prominently in the National Hockey League and National Football League. It is used so that player does not take up a roster spot. In football, when a player is placed on the...
for the rest of the year. In his second year, he fractured two ribs in the third preseason game. He was sidelined for the last preseason game and the first three regular season games. Utley came off the bench by playing in the second half of the next two games. He started in the sixth game, but dislocated his shoulder in the 3rd quarter. He finished the season playing only in the 2nd half for the rest of the season.
Paralysis
In his third year, Utley started every game and was the full time right guard until a paralysis injury forced him to retire. An injury to his sixth and seventh
cervical vertebraeIn vertebrates, cervical vertebrae are those vertebrae immediately inferior to the skull.-Variation among species:In some species, some parts of the skull may be composed of vertebra-like elements, e.g...
occurred in a game against the LA Rams on November 17, 1991. Although he would later learn he was largely paralyzed from the chest down, Utley flashed the crowd a "thumbs up" as he was being taken off the field. The thumbs up sign has become the symbol for the Mike Utley Foundation, a foundation created in 1991 by Utley and his agent Bruce Allen to help seek a cure for paralysis.
While the location of his injury makes him a
quadriplegicQuadriplegia, also known as tetraplegia, is paralysis caused by illness or injury to a human that results in the partial or total loss of use of all of their limbs and torso; paraplegia is similar but does not affect the arms...
by the standard medical definition, he has essentially complete use of his upper extremities, making him functionally a
paraplegicParaplegia is an impairment in motor and/or sensory function of the lower extremities. It is usually the result of spinal cord injury or a congenital condition such as spina bifida which affects the neural elements of the spinal canal. The area of the spinal canal which is affected in paraplegia is...
.
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