PHOENIX - The NFL owners are meeting here in Phoenix with a full agenda that includes "player health and safety.''
Former Baltimore Ravens defensive lineman Derek Wolfe might like a word.
"In 2013,'' Wolfe tells the Joe Rogan Experience, "I bruised my spinal cord. I was paralyzed for three hours and I played two weeks later... 12 weeks later, I had a seizure ... I was in a coma for 36 hours."
Wolfe, is 33 now and retired. That particular experience came during his time with the Denver Broncos, with whom he won a Super Bowl. Wolfe was able to orchestrate a "one-day contract'' with Denver so he could retire a Bronco, and he now works in media in Denver.
In 2020, he came to the Ravens by signing a one-year, $3 million contract. He played well enough that the next spring Baltimore signed him to a three-year deal worth $12 million. But during the season he suffered a hip injury that ended his year, and with an injury settlement in March 2022, his career.
And "injuries'' remain a big part of his story ... and of the NFL owners meetings focus.
“Every time I got touched,'' Wolfe recalled of his scary 2013 issues, "my arms were going numb. And I’m a defensive lineman, so my head is getting hit every play … I wasn’t getting enough fresh blood to my brain because I had a bruise right at the base of my brain stem.”
The NFL continues to work to make its sport safer. The owners meetings will include forums during which player health and safety will be the focus, with the life-and-death situation involving Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin a centerpiece.
Maybe Derek Wolfe's story should be included as well.
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