By almost any account, it’s miraculous that New Orleans Saints linebacker Michael Mauti still is an NFL player.
After playing with ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease, for several years, he no longer could navigate his way around the condition that he’d lived with since his senior season at Penn State.
The special team ace, who was named Saints special teams MVP in 2015, was unable to complete the 2016 season (he missed the final seven games) and finally had corrective surgery last offseason. He re-signed with the Saints in July, was released after training camp, then re-signed in October.