Ex-Lion Utley Walks In Public

February 15, 1999 / 4:54 PM EST / CBS Sportsline

Mike Utley took the first few steps Monday on what he plans to be a long journey back from paralysis.

With two friends steadying him, the ex-NFL player grimaced as he slowly placed one foot in front of the other and walked perhaps 10 feet.

A couple of times, Utley lost balance and had to be caught by retired NFL center Bill Lewis and Detroit Lions linebacker Rob Fredrickson.

When it was over, the 6-foot-6 former offensive lineman was relieved, comparing the effort to NFL training camp.

"Whew," he exclaimed. "I'd rather double day than do this. It's a good start. Is it the finish line? Not even close."

The few steps Utley took were small and halting, but represent giant strides for this irrepressible man who has come to epitomize determination and courage in the face of grim odds.

Until Monday, Utley had only taken the steps in private. But he repeated the remarkable achievement in front of a small group of reporters and photographers to show that he has accomplished what doctors said he would never do.

Seven years, three months ago, after one of the violent collisions so common in the NFL, Utley lay motionless on the turf before a silent crowd at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Mich.

The 6-foot-6, 315-pound offensive lineman for the Detroit Lions was carried off the field. His sixth and seventh vertebrae were crushed. He was paralyzed, a quadriplegic.

Yet Utley refused to give up. He has skydived and scuba dived, gone skiing and taken kayak lessons. He drives a specially equipped van. He started a foundation aimed at finding a cure for spinal cord injuries, and helping those who have been stricken, mostly teen-agers or young adults.

"Thumbs up" became his trademark.

Utley has vowed to someday walk off the field from that precise spot where he was injured. He isn't ready for that yet. But the first public steps would show how far he has come.

"He's one of the strongest people internally that I've ever been associated with," said George Dempsey, president of the Phoenix-based Mike Utley Foundation. "He has incredible charisma, especially with teen-agers and young adults. And he has a million-dollar smile."

Dempsey met Utley nearly seven years ago.

"I told him `Mike, you are going to do more from your wheelchair to help the children of this country than you could ever have done playing professional football,"' Dempsey said. "And that's exactly what he's done. He's an incredible inspiration."

When doctors told him he would never walk again, Utley ordered them out of the room and said never tell him what he couldn't do.

Just past his 33rd birthday, after years of grueling, mind-numbing, repetitive physical therapy, Utley is careful not to call what he will do Monday "walking."

"Just recently, I have accomplished what some doctors told me was impossible," he said in a statement relesed by his publicist last week. "I stood up and took a few steps. This injury does change you if you let it. I won't let it."

The injury has transformed a largely undisciplined, fun-loving athlete from Washington State University into a supremely disciplined, yet no less fun-loving, quadriplegic who refused to surrender.

"He works harder than any person I've ever met," Dempsey said. "He is at gym and therapy six days a week. He is relentless. He has a work ethic that is second to none."

Utley's injury was known as "incomplete" in medical terms, which means he had some sensations and slight functions in his legs.

He went to the University of Miami medical school for biofeedback treatment, looking to find the connection between his brain and those few nerves that survived.

He has spent the last eight to 10 months strengthening his legs so they could support his still sizable upper body.

"He had to get his hip flexors moving in order to move his legs," Dempsey said.

Utley, who continued to receive his football salary after his injury, plans to spend his winters in Phoenix and his summers near Seattle, where he grew up and his family still lives.

All the while, he will keep aiming toward that goal, so unthinkable a few years ago, of getting up from the turf in the Silverdome and walking off the field. Now, it seems more than a quadriplegic's pipe dream.