Mark W. Messner (born December 29, 1965) is a former American football player who played in the National Football League (NFL) as a linebacker for the Los Angeles Rams during the 1989 NFL season. He sustained a serious knee injury in the 1989-90 NFC Championship Game against the San Francisco 49ers and never played in another game. Messner played college football for the University of Michigan. He started every game, 49 in all, at defensive tackle for Michigan from 1985 to 1988. He was the first position player ever to be selected as a first-team All-Big Ten Conference player all four years. He was selected as a first-team All-American by the Sporting News in 1987 and was a consensus All-American in 1988. He set still holds Michigan records for quarterback sacks in a game (5), career tackles for loss (70), and career sacks (36). He was inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 2014. Early years and family Messner was born in Riverview, Michigan, a southern suburb of Detroit, in 1965. His biological father, Max Messner, was a linebacker for the Detroit Lions and Pittsburgh Steelers from 1960 to 1965. Messner's parents divorced when he was young, and he was raised by his mother and stepfather, Del Pretty, who ran a piano store in Livonia, Michigan. Messner referred to his biological father as the "fun" dad and Pretty as the "disciplinarian." In a 1988 interview with Mitch Albom, Messner referred to Pretty as "the most important person in my life. He's the reason I do what I do, and try as hard as I try." He later noted that Pretty "raised me, fed me, spanked me, hugged me, took me to school, wrote me poems, came to all my football games and made me feel like the most important person in the world. Pretty was diagnosed with lymph node cancer in 1980 and eventually died from the disease in December 1989 when Messner was a rookie with the Los Angeles Rams. Messner was a hyperactive child for whom football was an outlet to unleash his energy. He grew up in Hartland, Michigan, and attended Hartland High School from 1980 to 1981 before transferring to Detroit Catholic Central High School, which was then located in Redford, Michigan. He played at the tight end and nose guard positions for Catholic Central in 1982 and 1983 and earned all-state