Anthony Conner Injury Video: Louisville CB's Hard Tackle Leads to Broken Neck

Louisville Cardinals cornerback Anthony Conner was just attempting to make a play last night against 5-1 Rutgers University.

Instead of showcasing fundamental tackling, Conner went head-first into Scarlet Knight’s wide receiver Mohamed Sanu’s knees.

Louisville coach Charlie Strong says, “Cornerback Anthony Conner broke his neck when his head hit the knee of Rutgers receiver Sanu, but he isn’t paralyzed.”

We have seen this happen more and more over the course of the last couple of years, or so it seems. Other than teaching the fundamentals of tackling, injuries similar to this occur in football every year.

Just think about how many times we see it in the NFL where players lead with their head to the knees of offensive players. We see it constantly, even from Pro Bowl safeties like Troy Polamalu, who does it regularly.

Conner made a poor tackle and unfortunately is paying the price. However, fans of football are extremely happy to see that he didn’t get the worst possibly injury.

It is ironic, however, that this would happen against Rutgers University. They had a very similar situation with Eric LeGrand, who was paralyzed on the football field more than a year ago.

Conner is extremely lucky he did not suffer the same end result as LeGrand.

It’s scary to watch football players put their own life at risk by going head-first into other players on the field. At any moment something like this could happen and it should be something to consider before attempting the tackle.

As bad as this looked, Conner dodged a major bullet.