Everett talks to Oprah; will be on ESPN2 tonight
NFL

EDITOR'S NOTE: ESPN2 is airing a special on former Kilgore College tight end Kevin Everett tonight at 7 p.m., an extensive interview with Everett and documenting how he recovered from life-threatening spinal injuries.

CHICAGO (AP) - 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, who played here at Kilgore College from 2001-02, was playing against the Denver Broncos on Sept. 9 on special teams when he tackled Domenik Hixon on the second-half kickoff. His helmet struck Hixon's helmet and shoulder pad, and he immediately fell face-down on the turf. 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 today. 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 NFLcommissioner Roger Goodell. Moore said the couple will root for the New York Giants against unbeaten New England because the Giants are 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.

"...You've just got to go with the flow, just like my whole recovery," he said. "It's a blessing if it does. And it's a blessing if it doesn't because I came this far, I can't ask for much more. I'm up, I'm moving around and walking." +