Bills' Everett Again Standing Tall

CHICAGO -- Kevin Everett slowly unbuttons his suit jacket and sits down. It hardly seems like a big deal, those three little buttons. For Everett, though, it is nothing short of amazing. Less than five months after the catastrophic collision that doctors said might leave him paralyzed _ or worse _ he is walking and slowly regaining full use of his hands.

"I'm happy people can know me like this," Everett said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press. "They can look at me and see what I've overcome and I'm still trying to overcome, and just see that life isn't that bad after all.

"It could be a whole lot worse."

The Buffalo Bills tight end was playing special teams when he tackled Domenik Hixon on the second-half kickoff Sept. 9. His helmet struck Hixon's helmet and shoulder pad, and he immediately fell face-down on the turf. He lay motionless for what seemed like hours as medical personnel worked on him and the crowd at Ralph Wilson Stadium watched in silent horror.

His spinal-cord injury was so severe, orthopedic surgeon Andrew Cappuccino said the next day that Everett's chances of a full neurologic recovery were "bleak, dismal." It was unlikely he would ever walk again.

"He was just going off of past research on the injury. I couldn't expect him to say anything else but what he said because he didn't know the outcome. Nobody did," Everett said. "I was just hoping for the best. We were giving everybody the worst-case scenario."

Everett is telling the story of his accident and recovery, as well as its impact on everyone around him, in "Standing Tall: The Kevin Everett Story," which was written with Sam Carchidi and comes out Friday. Although his main goal in telling his story was to inspire others with spinal-cord injuries, he believes anyone can learn from it.

He and fiancee Wiande Moore are spending two days doing interviews before flying to the Super Bowl, courtesy of an invitation from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Moore said the couple will root for the New York Giants against the unbeaten New England Patriots because they're the underdogs.

As Everett has proven these last five months, never count out an underdog.

"I just saw it as a temporary little injury," he said. "It's not anything that's going to hold me back."

He is, though, trying to figure out where his life will take him next. Though he accepts he can no longer play and already is talking about coaching, there are times it's hard to realize his playing career is, indeed, over.

"I was so used to working out and being around my teammates, that's kind of hard," said Everett, who plans on making an appearance at the Bills' training camp this summer. "But I'll be OK. ... I don't see it as God picking on me or anything. I just see it as one door closes, another one's going to open.