If I had 40-50 of him every year I would love my life. “He is a tough son of a gun,” Waller said. Spalding played linebacker on the junior varsity squad and is now a slot receiver, running back, safety and kick returner. He is a team captain with a 3.8 grade point average and is loved by teammates. The Rockets will miss the 5-foot-11, 170-pound Spalding. “They said the surgery went perfect,” Spalding said.
He gives speeches about his trauma and recovery. He received emergency surgery to fuse his vertebra, began walking two days later, and now leads a normal life. During the final regular season game of the Detroit Lions 1997 season linebacker Reggie Brown was temporarily paralyzed and lay unconscious on the Pontiac Silverdome turf for 17 minutes before being revived by paramedics. He bugged coaches to tell him if he made the tackle as he walked off the field. Spalding showed his toughness on perhaps the final play of his career. “If that is what he decides to do I would hire that kid in a New York minute,” Waller said. John Glenn coach Steve Waller said Spalding would make a perfect coach because of his leadership, discipline and people skills. “I love the game of football and don’t want to let it go,” Dominic said. Now Dominic is thinking about becoming a coach. He’s wanted to play college football like his older brother Devon, who is a senior wide receiver at Central Michigan University. The goal now is for Spalding to live a normal life of running and walking without pain but he said his football playing career might be over. Then they inserted rods and plates to secure the area during a second procedure. Doctors fused the fourth and sixth vertebra. Often players that break that vertebra become paraplegics.
CAPTIN SPALDING CRACKED
Spalding cracked his C5 Vertebra, which is one of seven cervical vertebra in the neck that supports the skull. “I feel good now,” Spalding said by phone in his hospital bed on Monday. After regaining consciousness and movement Spalding walked off the field and stood with teammates before his mom drove him to the hospital. Spalding could not talk or move during those anguished seconds. The songs were composed by Wainwright himself specially for the series. Spalding is best known for his songs, sung in the folk guitar style, during his MASH appearances. He was a brave and faithful officer, and distinguished himself in various engagements, one of which was Bound Brook, where he captured several prisoners and recovered a quantity of forage gathered by the British. Spalding was played by Loudon Wainwright III. Captain Spalding was transferred to the First Regiment, Connecticut line, and continued in the service till January 1, 1783. It was a scary moment as a teammate struggled to lift him off the ground. Captain Calvin Spalding, better known as the 'singing surgeon', was a doctor who appeared in three Season 3 episodes of MASH.
But Spalding lay motionless on the ground and without feeling for 15 seconds. On the 24th play of John Glenn’s 26-14 victory over Novi Friday night Spalding made a routine tackle, dropping Novi’s Jason Jennings after a six-yard gain. Westland John Glenn senior safety Dominic Spalding feels fortunate that he walked around the Providence Hospital corridors twice following two surgeries over the weekend to repair a broken neck.