Anthony Dwayne Phillips (born October 5, 1970) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

defensive back in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) who played for the Atlanta Falcons and

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansi ...

. He played college football for the

Texas A&M–Kingsville Javelinas The Texas A&M–Kingsville Javelinas ( ) are the College athletics, athletic teams that represent Texas A&M University–Kingsville (TAMUK) in Kingsville, Texas, in intercollegiate sports at the NCAA Division II, Division II level of the National ...

. He also played in the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

(AFL) for the

Grand Rapids Rampage The Grand Rapids Rampage was an arena football team based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The team began play in 1998 in the Arena Football League as an expansion team. They were last coached by Steve Thonn. Their home arena was the Van Andel Arena. ...

and Buffalo Destroyers, winning the Arena Bowl with Grand Rapids in his first season there.

Professional career

After attending Texas A&M–Kingsville, Phillips was selected by the Atlanta Falcons in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

. He became a rising star with the Falcons, but in his second season, he suffered a gruesome leg injury. During a game against the Buffalo Bills, Phillips intercepted a pass thrown by Buffalo quarterback

Jim Kelly James Edward Kelly (born February 14, 1960) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons with the Buffalo Bills. He also spent two seasons with the Houston Gamblers of the United Stat ...

, catching the ball at the Atlanta 2-yard line, and was on his way to returning the ball for a defensive touchdown. However, after 43 yards, Kelly himself caught up to Phillips and tackled him while he was running (in bounds) down the side line, with the latter suffering a

compound fracture A bone fracture (abbreviated FRX or Fx, Fx, or #) is a medical condition in which there is a partial or complete break in the continuity of any bone in the body. In more severe cases, the bone may be broken into several fragments, known as a '' ...

to both his

tibia The tibia (; ), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outside of the tibia); it connects ...

and

fibula The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity i ...

on his right leg upon landing awkwardly on it. Phillips was required to stay on his back for a month in order for the bones to heal, and Kelly has since apologized for the injury. Phillips was cut after one additional season with the Falcons. He later signed with the

in 1998, but his season ended with a torn ACL. After the season, he played two seasons in the

, helping the

win

ArenaBowl XV ArenaBowl XV was the 2001 edition of the Arena Football League's championship game, pairing the Grand Rapids Rampage of the Central Division with the Nashville Kats of the Southern Division. The Grand Rapids offense, led by quarterback Clint D ...

, before retiring.

Personal life

Raised in Galveston, Texas, Phillips has two children and later settled in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He was diagnosed with kidney failure, stemming from legal steroid usage during his football career.

References

External links

ESPN statsVideo of Jim Kelly's tackle on Phillips
1970 births Living people American football defensive backs Atlanta Falcons players Minnesota Vikings players Grand Rapids Rampage players Buffalo Destroyers players Texas A&M–Kingsville Javelinas football players Players of American football from Galveston, Texas {{defensiveback-1970s-stub