Mike Utley
American former American football playerWikipedia
12
MENTIONS
9
EPISODES
9
PODCASTS
Search complete. 12 mentions across 9 episodes found for "Mike Utley".
Oct 2, 2026
speaker_3HOST
Mm.
Ty HallockGUEST
Um, Mike Utley, if you remember.
speaker_3HOST
Yeah.
Ty HallockGUEST
Uh, a lot of guys that were there.
speaker_0HOST
This dude was wheeled off the field and gave a tearful thumbs up to the crowd, which in my opinion is the biggest slap in the face to actual injured athletes.
speaker_0HOST
You know who started the thumbs up while being wheeled out of the stadium thing? That was Mike Utley.
speaker_0HOST
And you know who Mike Utley was? Utley was an offensive lineman for the Lions in 1991, and while he was trying to make a block, his head hit another player and instantly he was paralyzed from the chest down.
speaker_0HOST
Although he obviously knew something was horribly wrong, Utley flashed the crowd a thumbs-up sign as he was being taken off the field on a cart, and that thumbs-up sign has become the symbol for the Mike Utley Foundation, which is a foundation created by Utley and his agent to help seek a cure for paralysis.
speaker_0HOST
So when Paul Pierce Williams is leaving the field with a slightly pulled hamstring flashing it, it's beyond insulting to warriors like Utley.
speaker_0HOST
I used to give William shit by calling him Purple Rain because he wore makeup and painted his fingernails.
John HolmbergHOST
And we just had the Caleb Williams, uh, Spinal Foundation drive by on that.
John HolmbergHOST
That's, that was reserved for Mike Utley and it, and, and Ryan Shazier.
Dale HellestraeGUEST
He cannot play on Monday.
John HolmbergHOST
No.
DevonHOST
Like, it's painful.
DevonHOST
Is it painful on how, like, you get a cart and you do the thumbs up? I mean, maybe not, because, like, in history in sports, we see that, like, with Mike Utley, the Detroit Lions player who started the whole thumbs up on the cart and everything, I think because, you know, everybody thought maybe he could have been paralyzed or something.
AaronGUEST
I think he was paralyzed.
DevonHOST
Yeah, I can't remember... it's been a long time like i was a kid when that happened yeah but like i get it and maybe maybe and we all know k was caleb's an emotional guy i get it it we're in a different generation now like this is how people are emotional it's not the not back in the 70s and 80s where the football players are like you know fingers off yeah cut their fingers off
DomHOST
Like, it's painful.
DomHOST
Is it painful on how, like, you get a cart and you do the thumbs up? I mean, maybe not, because, like, in history in sports, we see that, like, with Mike Utley, the Detroit Lions player who started the whole thumbs up on the cart and everything, I think because, you know, everybody thought maybe he could have been paralyzed or something.
AaronGUEST
I think he was paralyzed.
DomHOST
Yeah, I can't remember... it's been a long time like i was a kid when that happened yeah but like i get it and maybe maybe and we all know k was caleb's an emotional guy i get it it we're in a different generation now like this is how people are emotional it's not the not back in the 70s and 80s where the football players are like you know fingers off yeah cut their fingers off
Braylon EdwardsHOST
And the only reason I bring this up is because then he gets carted off and he's got the towel over his head.
Braylon EdwardsHOST
And then he takes the towel off and he puts the fist in the air looking like Mike Utley, if you would, in the 90s for the Detroit Lions.
Braylon EdwardsHOST
And then you find out you guys are crazy.
Braylon EdwardsHOST
You guys are absolutely crazy.
Jason GoffHOST
Like, I saw the one, and all dads out there know this one.
Jason GoffHOST
You know, you see him getting carted off and the tears coming down his eyes, and he gives the thumbs up, the a la the Mike Utley, and I saw one that said, you know, this is me... after sleeping on the hospital couch for two days watching my wife give birth.
Jason GoffHOST
And it's every dude who's ever had a kid, especially if you had it over here at Northwestern, like you can pinpoint where someone is at when they show you the little view out of Northwestern over Lakeshore Drive.
Jason GoffHOST
And like, oh, they're about to have a baby.
DeanHOST
like the guys who go out with their neck where the neck injury and they put the thumbs up was
BeanHOST
it the uh was it you lions fans yeah help me out here i think it's mike utley Remember when Mike Utley from the Lions got paralyzed? I think it was against the Jets, and he got paralyzed, and they did the thumbs up.
BeanHOST
Okay.
BeanHOST
That's one of the first players I remember doing the thumbs up on the card.
Dave PortnoyHOST
But the Caleb Williams, um, It looks like it's not going to be, knock on wood, nearly as serious as what it appeared.
Dave PortnoyHOST
I mean, the way he got carried off the field, the Mike Utley thumbs up, the crowd, the crying, all of it.
Dave PortnoyHOST
I mean, I honestly thought, well, we'll see you next year, like you're done.
Dave PortnoyHOST
And now you can't come back from an injury.
1 HR 13 MINS LATER
Dave PortnoyHOST
I mean, it's great.
Dave PortnoyHOST
We don't want injuries in this league, especially to the star players.
Dave PortnoyHOST
But, I mean, to ask for the cart, to do the Mike Utley, the whole works.
Dave PortnoyHOST
Quite the scene in Chicago.