Former NFL player Derek Wolfe reveals he was ‘temporarily paralyzed before playing TWO weeks later’
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 defenseman Derek Wolfe revealed he played 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 hit left him temporarily paralyzed
In August 2013, Wolfe bruised his spinal cord after a violent hit during an NFL game with the Broncos, temporarily paralyzing him before briefly returning to the roster.
The incident occurred during a preseason game vs. Seattle at Lumen Field in a helmet-to-helmet hit during the start of his sophomore season in Denver.
Wolfe was taken to the ER on a stretcher in an ambulance – which came onto the field.
Former Super Bowl champion Derek Wolfe revealed he played shortly after becoming paralyzed
Wolfe received a helmet-to-helmet hit during a preseason game on August 17, 2013 in Seattle
‘I was paralyzed for three hours and played two weeks later’ Wolfe said about the Joe Rogan Experience.
‘I couldn’t move. I was just stuck in the ground. It was like I was melted, it was the weirdest feeling, man.’
“The doctors wanted me to stay in the hospital, but the team doctors said, ‘you’re good, we can go’ on the team plane back to Denver.
“It was miserable, every time I was touched my arms went numb… and I’m a defensive lineman so my head gets hit on every play.
Wolfe was awake the entire time and felt numb from the nose down until sensation returned to his body several hours later.
Three months after returning to the field, Wolfe suffered a seizure from a lack of “fresh blood” in his brain after the bruised spinal cord caused a bruise at the base of his brainstem.
“That’s when I realized man, they don’t care about us,” he said.
Wolfe played 10 seasons in the NFL, winning a Super Bowl in Denver between 2012 and 2019, before coming to 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 season in the NFL, was taken away in an ambulance
He lay motionless and could not feel anything under his nose for several hours after the blow