Derek Wolfe Was Temporarily Paralyzed After Spinal Bruise; Played 2 Weeks Later

The Joe Rogan Experience I know youretired from football and um you'restill in the prime of your life did youretire because of injuries did youdecide that you had you had enough likeyeah it was a combination of all that soI had I had uh double hip surgeries Itore the labrums off the bone oh Jesusum I've been my NFL like the injuries Ihad while I was in the NFL were just outof control man uh 2013 I bruised myspinal cord I was paralyzedfor three hours and then I played twoweeks later oh my God and I played for12. it was miserable every time I gottouched my arms would go numb like andI'm a defensive lineman so my head'sgetting hit every playholy [ __ ] what was the play that madeyour spine get bruised so I was playinglike on the end of the line on the rightside and I was playing a cut blocksomebody try to cut my legs out so I'mplaying like sprawled out to play thecut block and then the fullback hit meon top of the head oh and it did I wasawake it didn't knock me out it justlike it felt like uh you know whenyou're sitting on a [ __ ] for too longget up yes exactly how my whole bodyfelt from the nose down oh my God youmust have been terrified I was scaredbut then when I started when I couldfeel them like touching my toesum like a couple hours after it happenedI was in the hospital that's when I juststarted making jokes and stuff because Iknew I was something in my head justsaid you're gonna be finelike I just had a feeling I had nochoice when I was a young kid 22 yearsold 23 years old wow and then uh 12weeks later I was playing good footballstill somehow 12 weeks laterI had a seizurelike a bad seizure and almost killed meI had to go I was in a coma for 36 hoursso whatwhat did the seizure come out of a playor did it no it's because I wasn'tgetting fresh blood to my brain becausethere was a bruise on that spinal rightat the base of my brain stemand it never healed I didn't let it healtwo weeks isn't going to heal a bruiseyou know holy [ __ ] it never healed so Iwasn't getting fresh blood in my brainso I was running on just like pureadrenaline and how did they clear you toplay two weeks later they told me it wasa stingeroh God he said it's just a stingeryou're fine well they said well you knowwhen you uh have a big warehouse and youflip the lights off they come right offbut when you turn them on it takes awhile for them to come back on that'swhat they told me happened they'recomparing you to a warehouse yeah you'relike hey [ __ ] I'm a human that'swhen I realized man I was like theydon't care about us no no there'sanother guy waiting to take your spotthat's what's so crazy and that's whyyou have to play yeah that's why guysplay hurt and played yeah banged up umso did you how much time did you get totrain before you went and played twoweeks later like how much I just wentstraight into practice so the next weekwow right the next week so one weekafter you're paralyzed you're inpractice Yeah so they tried to keep mein the hospital after that after likeafter the game and I was like when's theplane leaving and they were like they'regetting ready to go to the plane rightnow it's a preseason game and I was likeokay well I'm getting on that plane thenso I had him take me from the hospitalto the plane so the doctors wanted youin the hospital yeah doctors wanted meto stay but the team doctors were likeyou're good we can goSteve doctors are savages oh my god wellthey did the x-rays and the MRIs rightaway you know and right so that like wewent straight to the the ER I was on aon a stretcher you know into anambulance they'd bring the ambulance onthe field I couldn't moveI was just stuck in the ground it waslikeit was like I was melted you know itcouldn't move at all every all mymuscles were just it was the weirdestfeeling man but it like I said itstarted I was feeling better but I thinkI just tricked my brain into thinkinglikeI was in survival mode I've been insurvival mode since the day I came outof the womb man I justlike always surviving you know justtrying to survive through whatever it isthat's going on it's like I disassociatefrom it andgreat skill to have if you want to playprofessional football right well I don'tknow if you saw what Deion Sanders justsaid about um what he's looking for in aquarterback he wants two parent homeum it's a two-parent home a 3.5 GPA andhe went to the complete opposite for adefensive lineman really yeah he's likeI wantit's either football or prison prettymuch type of [ __ ]but if you think about the position andyou think about what you guys have to doit kind of makes sense oh you have to be[ __ ] barbaric yeah it is a [ __ ]war in there you got two I mean the waythat the size of these offensive linemennow I mean they're [ __ ] 350 poundsand there's two of them and they'retrying to move you every [ __ ] play ohmy God and you betterif you play [ __ ] you're gonna get[ __ ] that's what I used to that's whatI always sayyou go out there playing [ __ ] you'regonna get [ __ ] that's just the way itgoes what is the average lifetime of acareer like in the NFL from two and ahalf years wow because at that thirdyear you get vestedso vested means you get pension and uhall the benefits that come with that andmost guys don't get there and most guysdon't get thereyou know we we talk about it withfighting all the time that a a realelite athlete in his prime has like nineyears you got like that's that's theconsensus is there's like nine years atPeak Performance and then it's just toomuchthe wheels fall off the injuries stackup you know the the timing train andthen sometimes it's enthusiasm too guyslose that that fire that made him aSavage in the beginning but football'seven worseI mean it's even shorter time well it'sshorter but your earnings right youryour earnings you don't get to thatyou're on a rookie contract for yourfirst four years so you get drafted andyou're on that rookie contract you makepretty much slotted out the money youdon't if you're not a top 10 pick in thein the draft and you're not reallymaking life-changing money you knowum I have seven dollars when I gotdrafted though I didn't even have a bankaccountand I'm [ __ ] that was just a[ __ ] poor ass kid from OhioI went to Cincinnati andI lived with Travis and Jason Kelseywe all lived in the same houseum I don't know if you know those guysare but uh Travis is like best tight endin the history of the NFL now Jason'sgonna be the best center of both Hall ofFamers just played against each other inthe Super Bowland then our quarterback went up toCanada won two gray cups so we got fourSuper Bowls and two great cupsin that house and we were [ __ ] upswe were [ __ ] idiotsbut again don't you kind of want thatfrom I want football players to be alittle reckless you have to be yeah samewith Fighters I don't want a [ __ ] BoyScout exactly when Jon Jones keptgetting into trouble and people like youbelieve what Jon Jones did I'm likeJon Jones is a wild [ __ ] that'swhy he's the greatest of all time youneed an element of psycho you have to be[ __ ] up you have to be [ __ ] up youdo and it's just the way it goes you gotto be a little [ __ ] up to do it it'sis that true with all of them is thattrue like you've been around the gradesyou've been around some amazing playerslike is that true with all of them no noit's all most d-linemen interiordefensive lineman though they're [ __ ]up they are they're just [ __ ]different like Aaron Donald is adifferent [ __ ] he's I mean he'sgonna go down to the best defense attackwould ever do it but he's [ __ ] wildlike he's crazy do you think he tries tokill people out there he came in withthat or I think that also developed overthe course of his career I think itdevelops over your life right I don'tknow his life story or anything but mostof us have been through some [ __ ] rightyou know and it's just you can kind ofsee it when you meet a guy he's just[ __ ] different right yeah and I whenyou meet then you meet I have likePeyton Manning good friend of mine nowyou know we we were teammates for fouryears one won a Super Bowl togetherum and he still lives in Denver so wesee each other all the time but likePeyton was like complete opposite likehe'd [ __ ]he like controlled the room everythinghe did was like dialed in it was sodialed and so professional like he cameto work like dressed professionallyright defensive lineman we're coming in[ __ ] slides and [ __ ] shorts andt-shirts and [ __ ] righthe'd show up [ __ ] buttoned up with asuitcase or with a briefcase you knowand went right to the film room we'regoing [ __ ] to the weight room rightthat's where we're going so it was justa different vibe man and then likeDeMarcus Ware [ __ ] ultimate like sucha professional everything about him wasprofessional but the great d-linementhat are interior guysthey're usually [ __ ] up John Randallyou've heard of him yes this guy [ __ ]slept on a [ __ ] dirt floor growing upJesus you think he's not a little [ __ ]up yeahand then there's the sport itself whichI mean just the amount of impacts youguys are taking on regularly every daywhen it came to to stop to be stoppingwith the NFL like when I was like I'mdoneum I played eight years in Denver whichwas awesomeum and then I dislocated my elbow badgoing into a contract here in 2019. Iwas having my best season in my careeryear eight balling out about to getanother paydayand uh it was like a dead play so thewhistle didn't get blown couple guysjumped off sides and the whistle getsblown halfway through the play so halfthe half the [ __ ] field is moving atfull speed and half the fields not andit's like fourth and inches play so Itry to make the [ __ ] tackle and Ilike slow up and I end up slipping andfalling and I'm going to get up in our330 pound nose tackle goes to like he'slike running straight at me and his[ __ ] Shin hits me right in the elbowand it goes to the ground oh dislocatedall the way to the [ __ ] ground I[ __ ] dude I was I've never been in somuch painit hurts so [ __ ] it made me want tothrow up I was throwing up in my mouthbecause I was grabbing at it and tryingto put it back in oh because I in 2016 Idid that with my right elbow it came outI put it right back in and just keptgoingI mean that's the [ __ ] the [ __ ] yourfingers get popped out all the time youjust put them in and go like there's notime to [ __ ] aroundand I was trying to get it to go in andI could just feel it grinding on thebone grinding against each other and itwas like making me [ __ ] ill then theytook me and they took me in the lockerroom and I was [ __ ] pissed because Iknew it was going to cost me a bunch ofmoney that elbow deal is gonna cost meif I knew it it probably cost me 20million oh[ __ ] pissed my own teammate he didn'tmean to him it's nice yeah but it waslike on a dead [ __ ] play I was losingmy [ __ ] I [ __ ] slammed my helmet Iwas like these [ __ ] like I wasblaming the ref so blaming everybodyokay [ __ ] raps I'm gonna sue the[ __ ] refsmy turn all right you know yeah thinkand here's the other thing before gamesI was taking micro doses so I'mmicrodosed and I might like takingmushrooms yes yeah yeah before games soI'm taking mushrooms the Viking in youyeah I'm [ __ ] taking mushrooms and[ __ ] Adderall wow oh my God before Iplay combination yeah what is that likemushrooms and Adderall dude the [ __ ]focus is out of control and I would justlike before games I would like I wouldlike get myself pissed off so I justwould start thinking about my childhoodlike the [ __ ] that I went through as akid whoa and they would [ __ ] get mein this rage mode now it was like thiscrazy controlled rageso Adderall mushrooms and childhood rageyeah all together in a 280 pound Savagewell I was like 300 pounds then you knowoh my God I was like 20 pounds heavierthan I am now when I was playingoh my God just [ __ ] such a meatheadsaying wild crazy [ __ ] to quarterbacks Itold I told a guy I was gonna [ __ ]eat his kids oh my Godit was crazywhat did he say he did he didn't say[ __ ] he never talked I played againstthis guy twice a year for eight yearsand that was in year four that thathappened so four years straight he neversaid another word to me oh my God he waslike this guy's so [ __ ] sickoonce I got married and had kids andstuff though I like I was like quoted onsaying [ __ ] like that but I just that'swhat you do man it's a [ __ ] head gameI'm just a head game I'm trying to getin his head yeah 100 yeah I always tryto explain that to people people ConorMcGregor is a [ __ ] [ __ ] the thingshe says I'm like it's part of the game Imean it's yeah I get it you don't wantto hear those things I get it I get itbut that that's legal and that works itworks it's it's strategy it's unsue Artof War