Draper • The cane never leaves Fred Graves’ right hand, as the former receivers coach for six NFL teams stands on Juan Diego Catholic High School’s football field and instructs a punt returner.
Being able to walk slowly and steadily across the field is a continuing victory for Graves, 69, two years after he slipped and fell on a kitchen floor in his home in Sandy, jarring his neck with a central cord injury. The Utah alumnus and longtime Ute assistant coach has come a long way from the days when merely pulling himself up from a hospital bed required more than a dozen attempts.