Lineman Remains Paralyzed : Pro football: Lions’ Utley has surgery for injury suffered in Rams’ game. Clearer prognosis will be available in 48 hours.

Through the many failures that have haunted their existence, the Detroit Lions always managed to pick up the pieces and push on. They did it after losing games, after cutting players, after firing coaches.

They couldn’t do it Monday.

They aimlessly went through the motions at the Silverdome until Coach Wayne Fontes stopped the videotapes, the lectures and the pep talks and sent his players home.

The spinal injury suffered by guard Mike Utley during Sunday’s 21-10 victory over the Rams left the Lions in a funereal silence. A sadness of almost suffocating magnitude enveloped the team.

“We’re sitting in there to watch film,” linebacker Chris Spielman said, sitting on a stool in front of his locker. “We’re kidding ourselves. It’s like staring at a blank wall. I could only think of one thing, Mike.

“Everybody’s thinking of one person who’s struggling, who’s really struggling to walk again. My thoughts are with him and his family right now. We pray for the best. He’s a friend of mine, a teammate of mine. Every guy on this team is like a brother. It’s comparable to something happening to somebody in your family.

“It’s the darkest day I’ve ever had in football.”

Phillip Mayer, chief of the section on spine surgery at Henry Ford Hospital’s orthopedic department, said Utley remained paralyzed from the chest down after four hours of surgery. A clearer probable prognosis will be available in 48 hours, Mayer said.

Center Kevin Glover thought of the words spoken by Fontes as he dismissed the team.

“You can’t concentrate on films,” Glover said. “He said, ‘You go home and pray for Mike.’ ”

It was a day when the game ball for the Lions’ victory would have been a cherished trophy for Utley. Instead, the ball, placed on the top shelf of his locker, was a haunting irony of the tragedy of victory.

Utley was miles away at Ford Hospital in Detroit, after having surgery to relieve pressure on his spine caused by damage in the region of the sixth cervical disk.

For the Lions, the wait was agonizing. The third-year pro is popular with his teammates. Although he was a carefree spirit away from the field, he was an intense competitor on it.

He came to the Lions as a third-round draft choice from Washington State. A knee injury limited him to five games his rookie year. He played both tackle and guard last season and started only one game.

This season, being anchored at right guard helped him. He started all 11 games.

Utley likes motorcycles and loud music. Sometimes he wore an earring--a skull and crossbones, or a dagger, all in fun.

“I change them every other day,” he once said in a light-hearted interview during training camp. “It gives the guys a new outlook on things. I don’t sit and think about it.”

Guard Eric Andolsek’s locker is next to Utley’s. On Mondays, they normally engage in the normal banter that enlivens a locker room.

“It hurts me,” Andolsek said. “He’s right there next to you. You’re laughing and clowning around. Now he’s fighting to walk. . . .

“Some guy had to pull a card. He pulled the wrong one.”

Utley was hurt on the first play of the fourth quarter--a touchdown pass to Robert Clark--when he was blocking David Rocker. Utley lost his balance after the block and landed on his helmet, the full force of his nearly 300 pounds driving his head into the artificial turf.

“I haven’t seen it,” Andolsek said of the play. “I really don’t want to see it. Us offensive lineman will go out and do it for Mike, play for Mike.”

Andolsek went to bed Sunday night hoping for the best.

“You hope you’ll hear something good when you wake up,” he said.

Nose tackle Jerry Ball spoke of Utley’s reaction as he was wheeled off the field. The Lions had taken the lead on the touchdown.

“He put his thumb up just like this,” Ball said, giving the thumbs-up sign.