Kenny Walker American football player
Kenny Wayne Walker (born April 6, 1967) is a former defensive lineman for the Denver Broncos. The youngest of six children, at the age of two, Walker became profoundly deaf from a bout with meningitis. He is one of only two deaf players in the history of the National Football League. (The other, Bonnie Sloan, played in the 1970s. ) Walker starred at the University of Nebraska, playing in the Senior Bowl in January 1991. At his final home game at Nebraska, the capacity crowd showed their appreciation for Walker by signing "applause" to him in unison. Three months after the Senior Bowl, the Broncos selected him in the eighth round (200th overall) of the 1991 NFL Draft. He emerged as a regular for the Broncos in 1991, playing in all 16 games. The following year, he started in all but one of the team's games, but his career ended after that. Walker published an autobiography “Roar of Silence: The Kenny Walker Story” in 1998, and also has a chapter dedicated to him in the book "Great Deaf Americans."