Alabama's Anfernee Jennings rebounds from catastrophic injury to the edge of the draft
The bad news came in the form of an accidental leg-whip from a teammate. The much worse news came in the form of a tweet from a random fan.
It was 2018. The Alabama Crimson Tide had just polished off Clemson in the CFP semifinal in New Orleans. Late in the game, linebacker Anfernee Jennings, shutting down a short run in the red zone, took a leg to his knee. The knee buckled and Jennings dropped to the Superdome turf, done for the night and unable to exult in the joy of a 24-6 victory over the Tigers.
The preliminary diagnosis: a tear to Jennings’ posterior cruciate ligament. Traumatic, but not necessarily catastrophic. But the next morning, Jennings was back in Tuscaloosa, thumbing through Twitter when he caught sight of a photo that showed his leg bent sideways like a greater-than symbol. He texted it to his trainer, who found little pulse in Jennings’ ankle and recognized that there was much more at work here than a simple torn ligament.
Suddenly, a relatively standard injury became a far more serious concern.
Within minutes, Jennings was headed for an MRI, which quickly revealed artery damage and a blood clot. Team officials loaded him into an ambulance bound for a Birmingham hospital. Now the question wasn’t whether Jennings would play in the fall, it was whether he’d keep his leg.
One successful surgery, one successful rehab, and two successful seasons later, and Jennings is now ready to enter the NFL draft. If you’re looking for stories of adversity overcome, it’s tough to top “nearly lost his leg.”
Jennings is now awaiting the draft and waiting out the quarantine in Tuscaloosa, working out — at a socially responsible distance — with his trainer at a nearby field. He’s interviewed with several teams via FaceTime, everybody feeling their way through this new world.
“It’s such a weird time for [teams], too,” Jennings said. “Nobody’s used to everything being virtual. It’s good to be talking football, though. I’m making the most of it.”
Jennings grew up in Dadeville, Alabama, a couple hours east of Tuscaloosa and a whole lot closer to Auburn than ’Bama. Even as a child, he was one of the best on the field. “He would always make the All-Star team in Little League,” says Jennings’ mother, Felicia. “He would always make it to the Super Bowl.”
A four-star recruit coming out of high school, Jennings opted for Alabama over other SEC schools like Arkansas, Georgia and Mississippi State. He redshirted his first year, posted respectable redshirt freshman and sophomore years ... and then came that Sugar Bowl.
The game was already in hand, deep in the fourth quarter. A teammate’s leg slammed into Jennings’ knee, and he crumpled. The initial diagnosis was a sprained knee, but Jennings knew it was much worse than that.
Doctors raised the possibility that Jennings’ career could be over, but he would have none of it. “Nobody, at 20 years old, wants to be told you’re done,” he says. “I knew I still had something to prove. I wasn’t done yet.”
He set small goals, starting with getting out of the hospital that first time. “When I was in the hospital, the doctor told me the only way I would be able to go to the championship game [the following week] was if I could walk on crutches,” Jennings said. “I made that my goal of the whole week. I did it on the day I had to do it.”
Jennings was on the sideline for Alabama’s national championship victory over Georgia in 2018, but just a few months later, he was back on the field for his redshirt junior season. Over the next two years, Jennings would notch 134 tackles (25.5 for losses), with 13.5 sacks, two interceptions and a touchdown. The rehab was agonizing, brutal and relentless.
“I go from having one of my best games to the worst nightmare,” Jennings said. “You gotta start all the way over, learn how to walk again, learn how to run again. There was a time period when I just had to run forward, I couldn’t cut.”
Sal Sunseri, Jennings’ linebacker coach at Alabama, points to Jennings’ exceptional game against LSU last fall, where Jennings had two sacks in the Alabama loss, as evidence. “He came off the edges and got the sacks, those were very flattering,” Sunseri says. “Those tackles were supposed to be good. They thought they could single [cover] him. They couldn’t block him.”
By the time he was done at Alabama, he’d earned First-Team All-SEC honors, and he’d also earned Nick Saban’s trust enough to represent the Tide on the podium at last year’s SEC Media Days.
“The way he healed from it, and not let it bother him, brings tears to my eyes just talking about it,” Felicia Jennings says. “The willpower that he has. … It’s amazing how he came back and didn’t miss a beat.”
These days, Jennings — whose father was a big Penny Hardaway fan back in the ’90s, as you’d imagine — is trying his best to keep his edge while under lockdown. He and his girlfriend are taking care of their young son, and he’s trying his best to learn the culinary arts. “I make a mean breakfast casserole,” he says, “and I’m not bad on the grill.” In Alabama, that’s a bold statement.
So what’s next? Jennings may have to wait for his name to be called, but he’s got definite pro potential.
"Jennings is an interesting player,” says Yahoo Sports draft expert Eric Edholm. “He's a three-year starter at ’Bama, so that's a big plus. High-motor guy. Short but stout. A really aggressive player who has some pass-rush skill but isn’t quick around the edge. He's also got some good run-stopping ability and knocked down a lot of passes at the line for a guy his size.”
Sunseri concedes that Jennings’ speed could be an issue. “Any time he found deficiencies, he worked on them,” he says. “He’s fast enough to go make plays as long as he keeps his weight where it’s at right now. He needs to work on pure speed, but he’s going to be fine.”
So where does Jennings end up? Edholm says to wait around until Day 3. “To me, he's probably one of those guys who fits best on a Patriots/Lions/Dolphins type of defense,” Edholm says. “He's a really intense kid and a worker who can fill a few roles as a hybrid defender and someone who likely will be solid on special teams. Will he ever be special at any one thing? Probably not. He's really not ideal in coverage and not twitchy at all. More of a physical guy who wins with force more than finesse.”
Jennings offers up a strong defense of his own skills. “I got heart,” he says. “I’m a soldier. I’m passionate about the game, I love the game, I'm a winner. I’m a leader on and off the field. I’m one of the most valuable linebackers in the draft, one of the most versatile, and I can help a team on Day 1.”
“He’s a damn good football player,” Sunseri says. “Whoever gets this guy is going to have him for a long time.”
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @jaybusbee and contact him with tips and story ideas at jay.busbee@yahoo.com.
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