With tackling and hitting being its main foundation, football is one of the most violent and injury ridden of the major sports.  Players are often sidelined for weeks or even months at a time and injuries can occur to any part of the body imaginable.  Unfortunately, the physicality of football has also led to some serious, life threatening injuries as well.

On this day, November 17th, in 1991, tragedy hit the NFL, as Detroit Lions offensive lineman Mike Utley became paralyzed from the chest down. Utley’s horrific injury came in a game against the LA Rams and effected his sixth and seventh cervical vertebrae. Luckily, he was able to regain use of his upper extremities.

In 1991, Utley founded the Mike Utley Foundation to help find a cure for paralysis.