BUFFALO, N.Y. -- NFL commissioner Roger Goodell visited injured Bills tight end Kevin Everett on Thursday morning, spending 90 minutes with the tight end who sustained a severe spinal cord injury.
Goodell flew from New York City to Buffalo and met with Everett and his mother, Patricia Dugas, in the player's room at Millard Fillmore Gates Hospital, hospital spokesman Mike Hughes said.
Bills general manager Marv Levy also was in the room.
Hughes said Goodell requested permission to make the visit Wednesday, hours after Everett's doctors expressed "cautious optimism" that the player might be able to walk again. Everett sustained a life-threatening spinal cord injury in Buffalo's season opener against Denver on Sunday.
"He just wanted to go up to see him," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said.
Everett has shown significant signs of recovery since awakening from a sedated state Tuesday.
Doctors said he player can wiggle his toes, bend his hip, move his ankles, elevate and kick his leg, as well as extend his elbows and slightly flex his biceps. While all are significant signs of improvement, he noted that Everett has yet to show any movement in his hands.
Doctors were also confident enough in Everett's recovery that they took him off a respirator Wednesday.
When Everett arrived at the hospital Sunday, he was paralyzed below his neck.
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