Former NFL player Derek Wolfe reveals he was ‘temporarily paralyzed before playing TWO weeks later’
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Former Denver Broncos and Baltimore Ravens player Derek Wolfe reveals he was “temporarily paralyzed before playing TWO weeks later”… and admits NFL franchises “don’t care” about players
Former NFL defensive end Derek Wolfe has revealed that he played for just two weeks after being temporarily paralyzed while a member of the Denver Broncos.
The Super Bowl champion told Joe Rogan on his podcast that a violent blow left him temporarily paralyzed
In August 2013, Wolfe injured his spinal cord following a violent blow during an NFL game with the Broncos that left him temporarily paralyzed before returning to the gridiron.
The incident occurred in a preseason game against Seattle at Lumen Field in a helmet-to-helmet strike early in his second season in Denver.
Wolfe was taken by ambulance, which arrived at the field, on a stretcher to the emergency room.
Former Super Bowl champion Derek Wolfe revealed he played shortly after being paralyzed
Wolfe suffered a helmet-to-helmet injury during a preseason game on August 17, 2013, in Seattle.
“I was paralyzed for three hours and played two weeks later.” Wolfe said of the Joe Rogan Experience.
I couldn’t move. He was stuck on the ground. It was like he melted me, it was the weirdest feeling, man.
“The doctors wanted me to stay in the hospital, but the team doctors told me ‘you’re fine, we can go’ on the team plane back to Denver.”
“It was miserable, every time I got touched, my arms would go numb … and I’m a defensive lineman, so I get hit in the head on every play.”
Wolfe was awake the entire time and felt numb from his nose until several hours later, the feeling returned to his body.
Three months after returning to the field, Wolfe suffered a seizure due to a lack of “fresh blood” in his brain after his bruised spinal cord caused a hematoma at the base of his brainstem.
“That’s when I realized, man, they don’t care about us,” he said.
Wolfe played 10 NFL seasons, winning a Super Bowl while with Denver from 2012-19, before joining Baltimore as a free agent in 2020.
He played two seasons with the Ravens before retiring on July 28, 2022.
Wolfe, then in his second NFL season, was stretchered to an ambulance.
He lay immobile, unable to feel anything under his nose for several hours after the blow.