In his second year in 1990, he fractured two ribs in the third preseason game, and was sidelined for the last preseason game and the first three regular season games. Utley came off the bench by playing in the second half of the next two games. Utley started in the sixth game, but dislocated his shoulder in the third quarter. He finished the season playing only in the second half of games.[citation needed]
Paralysis
In 1991, Utley started every game and was the full-time right guard until a paralysis injury on November 17 forced him to retire (he took part in 11 games up to that point).[8] On the first play of the fourth quarter against the Los Angeles Rams, an injury to his sixth and seventh cervical vertebrae occurred while he was blocking the Rams’ David Rocker.[9][10][11] Although he would later learn he was largely paralyzed from the chest down,[12] Utley flashed the crowd a "thumbs up" as he was being taken off the field. The thumbs up sign has become the symbol for the Mike Utley Foundation, a foundation created in 1991 by Utley and his agent Bruce Allen to help seek a cure for paralysis.
Utley began rehabilitation at Craig Hospital, which specializes in spinal cord injuries.[13] While the location of his injury defines him as having quadriplegia by the standard medical definition, he has essentially complete use of his upper extremities, making him functionally someone with paraplegia.
Mike Utley Foundation
The mission of the Mike Utley Foundation is to financially support an effective function-restoring treatment for spinal cord injuries, to encourage through education that of adopting a rehabilitative lifestyle for the spinal cord injured and a public awareness of spinal cord injuries.[14]