Long before Cleveland Browns linebacker Paul Kruger won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens and made a living out of sacking quarterbacks, he experienced two near-death experiences.
The first one occurred in 1999, when Kruger was a teenage passenger in a Jeep Wrangler driven by his uncle.
When the driver lost control of the car on a steep hill, the Wrangler started rolling back down, ejecting Kruger and four other passengers from the vehicle. The roll bar of the Jeep landed on Kruger, and he was severely injured.
Despite being in a coma for two days, having his spleen removed and kidneys damaged, Kruger lived and was back on the football field a month after his release from the hospital.
However, nine years later when he was playing at the University of Utah, tragedy struck Kruger once more.
This time, after a group of his friends and teammates got into an altercation with gang members, Kruger was stabbed while trying to act as a peacemaker.
After four hours of surgery, Kruger once again survived, though he now lives with two large scars on his stomach.
Kruger expresses gratitude and appreciation for his life after going through two almost-fatal experiences.
“Now I feel more passionately about what I do, who I’m around,” Kruger told ClevelandBrowns.com. “I want the relationships I have to be the most powerful.”
