Neck Injury Paralyzes Lions’ Utley : Pro football: Lineman loses mobility from chest down, team doctor says.

The neck injury suffered by Detroit offensive lineman Mike Utley during Sunday’s game against the Rams has left him a paraplegic, the Lions’ doctor said Tuesday.

“At this time, we don’t expect him to regain any mobility,” David J. Collon, the team’s orthopedist, said during a news conference in Detroit. “He’s still taking it well. He’s not quite as upbeat as he was (Monday), but he’s taking it well.”

Collon said Utley has use of his hands and arms, but no mobility from his chest down. Utley will undergo a spinal fusion operation in the next few days and probably will be moved to a rehabilitation facility in about two weeks, according to Collon.

The injury occurred when Utley, a 6-foot-6, 290-pound third-year guard from Washington State, was pass-blocking Ram tackle David Rocker on Erik Kramer’s 11-yard touchdown pass to Robert Clark. Rocker jumped in an attempt to deflect the pass and came down on Utley, who lost his balance and fell forward, landing on the top of his head.

It was not the type of helmet-to-helmet collision usually associated with spinal injuries, however.

“It wasn’t an illegal play or an illegal block,” Lion Coach Wayne Fontes said. “It was just one of those freak things that happen on the football field. But you still hate to accept something like this happening.”

Said John Teerlink, Ram defensive line coach: “Everyone feels terrible about it, but David (Rocker) has to know it isn’t something he did. It wasn’t a cheap shot. It was just a play. We’ve got to tell him that. Boy, you don’t want a guy carrying that around with him for the rest of his life.

“It was just a freaky, freaky deal. Everything happened just the way it had to happen, his head was down, the hard surface. . . . It was freaky.”

Rocker, who was signed last week by the Rams from the Houston Oilers’ practice squad, was moving into an Anaheim apartment Tuesday and could not be reached for comment. The Ram players, who don’t play again until Monday night against San Francisco, were given Tuesday and today off.

Jeff Fisher, Ram defensive coordinator, held a brief meeting with his unit Monday to discuss the incident.

“I just wanted to tell them that this is an unfortunate part of this business and you can’t pinpoint why or when something like this could happen,” Fisher said. “I told them all we can do is think of him in our prayers.”

Ram guard Tom Newberry wondered if Utley’s injury would have been less serious had he been playing on grass instead of the synthetic surface in the Silverdome.

“He hit on the turf real funny, and that turf’s just not going to give,” Newberry said. “It just doesn’t give one-eighth of an inch. Grass tends to tear away on your helmet, and you’ll slip more and you don’t seem to get such severe injuries.”

But regardless of the playing surface, Newberry said Utley’s paralysis serves as a grim reminder of the real dangers involved in the sport.

“When something like this happens to a lineman, well, usually you don’t see us getting in the big, big collisions,” he said. “It scares you and makes you think. It’s really sad and it’s got to make all of us really think about what we do for a living.”

Lion tackle Roman Fortin, one of Utley’s closest friends on the team, said the injury underlines the priorities of life.

“Football takes a back seat to this,” Fortin said.

The most serious injury in the NFL in recent years occurred on Aug. 12, 1978, when Darryl Stingley, a wide receiver for the New England Patriots, was paralyzed from the neck down when he was hit by Jack Tatum of the Raiders during an exhibition in Oakland.

The career of safety Jeff Fuller of the San Francisco 49ers ended on Oct. 22, 1989, when he collided helmet-to-helmet with New England’s John Stephens. Fuller suffered a spinal injury that left him with only partial use of his right arm.

Stingley’s case prompted the retirement of another NFL player, cornerback Tim Lewis of Green Bay, who quit at 24 in 1986 after being temporarily paralyzed while tackling Willie Gault, then with the Chicago Bears.

There have been numerous cases of paralysis in high school and college football, the two most notable recent incidents involving Chucky Mullins of Mississippi and Marc Buoniconti of The Citadel.

Mullins died last May 1 of a blood clot. He had returned to classes at Mississippi two years after being paralyzed from the neck down while making a tackle against Vanderbilt in 1989.

Buoniconti, son of former Miami Dolphin linebacker Nick Buoniconti, sustained a similar injury while making a tackle. He and his father have since founded the Miami Project to fight paralysis.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.