See what you hit. Hit what you see.

It may be the most important thing a coach will teach you.

Buffalo Bills backup tight end Kevin Everett lies in a hospital this week, his family hoping and praying that he’ll walk again. Not that he’ll play football again. That he’ll walk again.

Everett was severely injured in the second half of the Bills game against the Denver Broncos on Sunday. He moved in to tackle Domenik Hixon, something he’s done several thousand times in his career. But this time something went wrong. Everett dropped his head, striking Hixon on the shoulder pad with the crown of his helmet. The collision shattered several vertebrae in Everett’s neck and damaged his spinal cord.

Doctors at the stadium were already calling the damage catastrophic as they loaded Everett into an ambulance on the field and the Bills fans gave him a standing ovation and held their breath at the same time.

It didn’t look good.

Since then, his prognosis has gone from “he’ll never walk again” to “it looks good, he has some movement.” Like any severe injury the hours right after it occurs are the most significant. Now, there are reports that Everett has some voluntary movement in his arms and legs and that the chances are good he’ll go on to live a “normal” life, whatever that means.

So now, the focus for Kevin Everett isn’t football. It’s working so that he can lead a “normal” life. It’s not scoring touchdowns; it’s concentrating on wiggling his toes.

In 1991, Detroit Lions offensive guard Mike Utley suffered spinal cord damage in a game against the Los Angeles Rams. He was blocking on a play in which the Lions scored and he pitched forward. Unable to bring his arms up in time his head met the turf of the Pontiac Silverdome and his spine exploded. Utley remains paralyzed, although in the 16 years that has passed he has regained some movement and can walk with the aid of braces and crutches. Check out www.mikeutley.org for more information on Mike and on spinal cord injuries, and what you can do to help if you feel the urge.

Utley’s injury was a freak incident. Everett’s, and I wish him well, could have been avoided.

See what you hit. Hit what you see. Never, ever drop your head to hit someone. There’s a reason that spearing is illegal in football, and it’s not because you can injure the person you’re hitting. It’s because you are never more vulnerable on a football field than when your head is down.

If you see what you hit, your head is up, your neck at its strongest position. My high school football coach used to run drills with us for hours on end it seemed during two-a-days to teach us just that. Hit what you see. “You can run into a freight train and not get injured if your head is up when you hit” he’d tell us.

I doubted the accuracy of that statement, but I understood his point. He was right. Football is a great game, fun to watch and even more fun to play. But it is violent, and dangerous enough on its own without putting yourself in a position where you can be severely injured.

It can be hard to do. Seeing what you hit means hitting with your face, something the laws of self preservation dictate we not do. That’s why we have facemasks.

See what you hit. Hit what you see.

It could save your life.

Brian is Creative Services Director for FOX 11and My Tucson TV.