Posted on Mon Sep 10, 2007 at 12:35:34 PM EST in NFL
More on: Bills, Kevin Everett, injury, neck (all tags)

Opening weekend of the NFL season is normally a time reserved for loud cheering, beer drinking, barbecue eating and unmatched hope for the upcoming season.  It's supposed to be a time when fantasy football GMs feel the bitter pain and overwhelming joy of defeat and victory.  It's supposed to be all those things, but how can it be when the football gods use opening Sunday to send a message that there's more to life than winning and losing?

The Bills' Kevin Everett is in ICU at a Buffalo hospital after a fairly routine tackle on the opening kickoff of the second half of the Bills/Broncos game.  Everett sustained a "cervical spine injury" that doctors believe could prevent him from ever walking again.  He'll be sedated for the next 24-48 hours before doctors can determine more.  

(Brian) Overstreet (Everett's agent) told the AP late Sunday that his client had some "sparse movement."

"The next couple of days is going to be critical," said Overstreet, responding to a question about paralysis. "Our concern is for him to come out of this healthy and, hopefully, be able to walk again.

This certainly makes Sunday's highlights seem rather trivial and it has to be hard for any professional player to focus solely on the game when reality strikes down like a bolt of lightening.  We'd like to think these guys are superhuman the way they take a lickin' and so often keep on tickin', but it's times like these that you realize why guys like Larry Johnson decide to hold out for more money.  Sure, some of it has to do with market value or simple greed, but these guys really are putting their health on the line each and every snap.  If that doesn't deserve adequate compensation then nothing does.  

Links:

[AZCentral.com]: Bills' Everett under sedation

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