Mike Utley

NEW YORK -- Mike Utley's plans after breakfast were to enjoy New York, which he never had the time to do as a visiting player with the Detroit Lions. And that included window shopping with his girlfriend."

The first time Mike Utley attended the Ed Block Courage Awards banquet was in 1992, 3 1/2 months after he was paralyzed from the chest down while playing for the Detroit Lions. It was Utley's first major public appearance after the injury, and he remembers the reporters, the cameras, the intense scrutiny he was under during his two-day visit to Baltimore. "But you know what?" Utley said yesterday. "I survived." Emboldened by the experience, Utley went public with his quest to find a cure for paralysis and continued working toward his goal of walking off the Silverdome field and bringing proper closure to his NFL career.

DENVER -- Mike Utley will make his first public appearance today since his paralyzing spinal-cord injury.Utley, hospitalized in Denver's Craig Hospital, is scheduled to attend the Broncos' AFC semifinal against the Houston Oilers. He has requested, through the hospital, that no pictures be taken of him at the game.Utley, a Detroit Lions guard, was injured Nov. 17 against the Los Angeles Rams.Since his transfer Dec. 11 to Denver, Broncos tackle Harvey Salem, a former Lion, and coach Dan Reeves have been frequent visitors.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Just a burner, Jim McMahon said. A burner, on a subfreezing day, with the wind chill index making it more like subzero. A burner that left McMahon's entire body numb, but couldn't knock him out of the game.Say hello to the NFL blood-and-guts poster boy of the week. McMahon couldn't help but think of Mike Utley and Dennis Byrd when the New York Giants nearly broke him in two yesterday. He, too, was paralyzed, if only for an instant."Scared the hell out of me," he said.

Every man, woman and child conversant with the trials, trauma and torment of Mike Utley wanted to reach out and lift him to his feet. That's the ongoing beauty, the one constant of the human spirit -- to respond and offer help in a desperate time of need.The unified intention of a torrent of silent prayers being offered that afternoon, Nov. 17, 1991, implored the same: Get up, Mike, No. 60, and get back to the huddle.It wasn't to be.Mike Utley is now in a wheelchair, the result of sustaining a fracture to the sixth cervical vertebra.

The first time Mike Utley attended the Ed Block Courage Awards banquet was in 1992, 3 1/2 months after he was paralyzed from the chest down while playing for the Detroit Lions. It was Utley's first major public appearance after the injury, and he remembers the reporters, the cameras, the intense scrutiny he was under during his two-day visit to Baltimore. "But you know what?" Utley said yesterday. "I survived." Emboldened by the experience, Utley went public with his quest to find a cure for paralysis and continued working toward his goal of walking off the Silverdome field and bringing proper closure to his NFL career.

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Washington Redskins are going to flash Mike Utley the "thumbs up" sign when they're introduced for Super Bowl XXVI on Sunday.After debating what would be a proper tribute to the former Detroit Lions offensive lineman, who was paralyzed from the chest down in a freak accident during a game in November, the Redskins decided to give him the "thumbs up" sign during introductions.Utley gave his teammates the "thumbs up" signal when he was being wheeled off the field during the game with the Los Angeles Rams.

The scene is always surrounded at first by a hush, then by silence.Down on the football field a player isn't moving. He's stretched out with doctors and trainers kneeling, talking to him. He's not moving. That's when the hush turns into silence because the spectators know that it's not just another torn knee or busted shoulder. They know it's football's most dreaded injury. They know it's a damaged neck.Move, you can almost hear people saying as if they were praying. Move your legs, move your arms.

DETROIT -- Diagrams of his injured spinal cord appeared in every local newspaper and on every television sportscast. His face, framed by long page-boy-style hair, has become familiar to football fans all over the nation. And Mike Utley's jersey number -- 60 -- decorated the Silverdome on Thanksgiving when his Detroit Lions teammates beat Chicago, 16-6.But there is much more to Utley than a backbone, a hairdo and number.Utley, who lies paralyzed at the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan after a Nov. 17 freakish football accident, is a fun-loving giant with an affinity for motorcycles, hunting geoduck clams and hard-rock music.

HERNDON, Va. -- This was one delivery Chuck Schmidt wasn't going to leave to UPS or Federal Express.After the Detroit Lions upset the Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs Sunday, Schmidt flew to Denver on Monday to present one of the two game balls the team awarded -- owner William Clay Ford got the other -- to Mike Utley.Coach Wayne Fontes was on the phone when Schmidt presented Utley, who was paralyzed on a freak play on Nov. 17, with the ball. Utley is recuperating in Denver."He was excited about it," Fontes said.

NEW YORK -- Mike Utley's plans after breakfast were to enjoy New York, which he never had the time to do as a visiting player with the Detroit Lions. And that included window shopping with his girlfriend."

Every man, woman and child conversant with the trials, trauma and torment of Mike Utley wanted to reach out and lift him to his feet. That's the ongoing beauty, the one constant of the human spirit -- to respond and offer help in a desperate time of need.The unified intention of a torrent of silent prayers being offered that afternoon, Nov. 17, 1991, implored the same: Get up, Mike, No. 60, and get back to the huddle.It wasn't to be.Mike Utley is now in a wheelchair, the result of sustaining a fracture to the sixth cervical vertebra.

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Washington Redskins are going to flash Mike Utley the "thumbs up" sign when they're introduced for Super Bowl XXVI on Sunday.After debating what would be a proper tribute to the former Detroit Lions offensive lineman, who was paralyzed from the chest down in a freak accident during a game in November, the Redskins decided to give him the "thumbs up" sign during introductions.Utley gave his teammates the "thumbs up" signal when he was being wheeled off the field during the game with the Los Angeles Rams.

Football is the most emotional of games that little boys and men, too, try to play. The Washington Redskins were at a momentous disadvantage. They were up against "12 men."The Detroit Lions had the all-important psychological edge. They were playing with a cause, a team fired with a mission that would negate the superlative abilities of those respected adversaries in burgundy and gold.In a Denver rehabilitation hospital, one of their own, tackle Mike Utley, a casualty in midseason, was trying to learn to shape a new life for himself.

WASHINGTON -- After they had shared the hugs on the sidelines and doused coach Joe Gibbs with a bucket of Gatorade, the tears flowed for the Washington Redskins yesterday.Tears of joy."I think there were a lot of tears shed," Gibbs said after the Redskins clinched their first trip to the Super Bowl in four years by routing the Detroit Lions, 41-10, in the NFC title game before 55,585 fans at RFK Stadium.The outmanned Lions got this far on an emotional, thumbs-up high from their fallen teammate, Mike Utley, who was paralyzed on a freak play in November.

Here's mud in your eye, John Madden. But that's the way you like it, right?If the CBS analyst had his way, there would be no place like domes. Madden, whose commentary sometimes resembles comics sound balloons -- whap, splat, pow -- should be happy Sunday, when he and partner Pat Summerall broadcast the NFC title game between the Washington Redskins and Detroit Lions from RFK Stadium (4 p.m., channels 11, 9). It's likely to be cold, muddy -- Madden's kind of day."There's one thing about football that's unique," Madden said in a news conference this week.

Football is the most emotional of games that little boys and men, too, try to play. The Washington Redskins were at a momentous disadvantage. They were up against "12 men."The Detroit Lions had the all-important psychological edge. They were playing with a cause, a team fired with a mission that would negate the superlative abilities of those respected adversaries in burgundy and gold.In a Denver rehabilitation hospital, one of their own, tackle Mike Utley, a casualty in midseason, was trying to learn to shape a new life for himself.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Just a burner, Jim McMahon said. A burner, on a subfreezing day, with the wind chill index making it more like subzero. A burner that left McMahon's entire body numb, but couldn't knock him out of the game.Say hello to the NFL blood-and-guts poster boy of the week. McMahon couldn't help but think of Mike Utley and Dennis Byrd when the New York Giants nearly broke him in two yesterday. He, too, was paralyzed, if only for an instant."Scared the hell out of me," he said.

HERNDON, Va. -- This was one delivery Chuck Schmidt wasn't going to leave to UPS or Federal Express.After the Detroit Lions upset the Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs Sunday, Schmidt flew to Denver on Monday to present one of the two game balls the team awarded -- owner William Clay Ford got the other -- to Mike Utley.Coach Wayne Fontes was on the phone when Schmidt presented Utley, who was paralyzed on a freak play on Nov. 17, with the ball. Utley is recuperating in Denver."He was excited about it," Fontes said.

DENVER -- Mike Utley will make his first public appearance today since his paralyzing spinal-cord injury.Utley, hospitalized in Denver's Craig Hospital, is scheduled to attend the Broncos' AFC semifinal against the Houston Oilers. He has requested, through the hospital, that no pictures be taken of him at the game.Utley, a Detroit Lions guard, was injured Nov. 17 against the Los Angeles Rams.Since his transfer Dec. 11 to Denver, Broncos tackle Harvey Salem, a former Lion, and coach Dan Reeves have been frequent visitors.