Former Super Bowl Champ Derek Wolfe Claims He Was ‘Temporarily Paralyzed’ During A Game, Played 2 Weeks Later, And Almost Died Because Of It

Playing professional football can be taxing on your body and some injuries can be a lot worse than others.

Former NFL defensive lineman Derek Wolfe revealed an injury left him temporarily “paralyzed” before he returned to the field a couple of weeks later.

“The injuries I had while I was in the NFL were out-of-control, ” Wolfe said on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. “In 2013 I bruised my spinal cord, I was paralyzed for three hours and then I played two weeks later.”

“It was terrible, every time I got touched my arms would go numb, and I’m a defensive lineman, so my head’s getting hit every play.”

Derek Wolfe said that in 2013, he bruised his spinal cord, was paralyzed for three hours, and played 2 weeks later.

He said that he had a seizure 12 weeks later that almost killed him due to a lack of blood flow in his brain caused by his bruised spinal cord.

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Wolfe, who spent nine seasons in the NFL, says the injury occurred during a preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks.

“I was playing on the end of the line on the right side, and I was playing a cut block somebody tried to cut my legs out,” Wolfe recalled. “So I’m playing sprawled out to play the cut block and then the fullback hit me on top of the head.”

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Wolfe then said he remained motionless on the ground.

“I was awake, it didn’t knock me out, it felt like, you know when you’re sitting on the s—ter for too long and get up, exactly how my body felt. From the nose down,” Wolfe said.

Wolfe was put into an ambulance and transported to a nearby hospital. Despite his injury, he couldn’t help but to make jokes a few hours later.

“I couldn’t move,” Wolfe said. “I was just stuck in the ground, it was like I was melted,” Wolfe said. “I was scared, but when I could feel them touching my toes a couple of hours after it happened, I just started making jokes.”

Wolfe would miss the team’s next game, but was back in the lineup for the final preseason game. He would then suffer a seizure three months later while on the bus ride to the airport for a game against the Kansas City Chiefs, according to ESPN.

“12 weeks later, I was playing good football still somehow, 12 weeks later I had a seizure, like a bad seizure it almost killed me, I was in a coma for almost 36 hours,” Wolfe said.

Wolfe won a Super Bowl with the Broncos.

Earlier this year, Wolfe killed a mountain lion that had been “wreaking havoc in a rural neighborhood” with a bow and arrow.