Derek Wolfe Says He Played Just Weeks After Temporary Paralysis

The longtime NFL defensive end said the team told him he just had a stinger, but health complications followed.

Former Broncos and Ravens defensive end Derek Wolfe retired from the NFL at age 32 in 2022, and with good reason. During a recent interview, he shared that he suffered some devastating injuries and yet was lucky enough to walk away on his own terms.

“I had double hip surgeries. I tore the labrums off the bone. The injuries I had while I was in the NFL was just out of control,” he said on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. “[In] 2013, I bruised my spinal cord. I was paralyzed for three hours and then I played two weeks later.”

He added the experience was “miserable” and “every time I got touched my arms would go numb.” 

Wolfe suffered the injury while with the Broncos in his sophomore campaign at age 23 during a preseason game against the Seahawks. He said he was carted off the field after lying motionless. The former defensive end also revealed that 12 weeks later he had a seizure and went into a coma for 36 hours. 

Wolfe told Rogan he suffered the seizure because his bruised spinal cord wasn’t allowing fresh blood to be delivered to his brain. He went on to explain that the Broncos cleared him to play because they said he just had a stinger.

“They told me it was a stinger,” Wolfe said. “You know when you have a big warehouse and you flip the lights off, they come right off, but when you turn them on it takes them a while to turn back on. That’s when I realized they don’t care about us.”

Wolfe went on to play for the Broncos until 2020, when he signed with the Ravens for his final NFL season. He officially concluded his career with a one-day contract in Denver last summer.