By SCOTT FOWLER

Two lives intersected in Charlotte on a warm October night in 2005.

Two rookie NFL players blasted into each other on "Monday Night Football" -- one from Green Bay, one from Carolina.

The hit ended the playing career of Green Bay's Terrence Murphy. Now 24, Murphy is an assistant football coach at Trinity Valley Community College in Texas. His health is good, but he still suffers from neck aches and backaches because of the hit. Doctors wouldn't clear him to play football again because of the risk of permanent paralysis.

"I didn't feel anything from the neck down when it first happened," Murphy said. "I was like, `Man, are you serious? I worked my whole life to get here!' "

The hit had little impact on the career of Carolina's Thomas Davis, who made the tackle and now starts at linebacker for the Panthers. He wishes Murphy hadn't gotten hurt. Davis sent him a get-well basket a few days after the collision.

Davis has never spoken with Murphy since that play 20 months ago. Until I told him Monday, Davis was unaware Murphy had never played a down again.

"Oh, really?" Davis said. Then he added quickly: "You never want to do that -- end a guy's career. ... I can definitely tell you I wasn't going out with any intent to do that."

This is a story about the unintended consequences of a violent game. Murphy and Davis, in separate interviews, agreed the tackle was clean. So did the NFL. Davis was not fined by the league for a hit that has been described in numerous media accounts as "helmet-to-helmet," although Davis said it was Murphy's head hitting Davis in the chest that did the most damage.

The game itself? In front of a national TV audience and a sellout crowd enjoying a 75-degree evening, Carolina took a 32-13 lead early in the fourth quarter. Then Brett Favre started humming. Favre got the Packers within 32-29 but no closer, and Panthers fans went home happy.

Murphy's injury was a football footnote. But sometimes the footnotes are more compelling than the text.

The play happened with three minutes, 25 seconds left in the second quarter after Carolina had taken a 23-7 lead. Murphy, the Packers' best kickoff returner, had made two third-down catches for first downs. He was feeling great.

John Kasay's kickoff went to Najeh Davenport, but he muffed the ball. Murphy grabbed it, started upfield and smashed into Davis.

"It wasn't a dirty hit," said Murphy, the Packers' second-round draft choice out of Texas A&M. "It was a freak accident. God had a different plan for me."

Said Davis, a No. 1 pick out of Georgia in '05 known for his explosive tackling: "I was just trying to be the first guy down there. ... I can actually remember me not really hitting him as good as I feel like I could have."

Murphy stayed down for several scary minutes as the game stopped and the cringe-inducing replay was shown. He was taken to a Charlotte hospital, where he stayed for several days with a bruised spinal cord and numbness in his arms and legs.

Subsequent tests showed he had an existing condition called stenosis -- in his case, a narrowing of the spinal column near his neck -- that would make it too dangerous for him to play again.

So Murphy stopped playing football. But he is exuberant over the phone talking about the football camp he recently held in Texas for underprivileged kids and the times he has shared his Christian testimony. He said he prays for Davis and for Davenport -- whose fumble propelled Davis toward Murphy -- not to feel guilty.

"If I saw Thomas Davis today, I'd give him a hug," Murphy said.
Murphy believes coaching is his calling. He recently returned to the Packers for a temporary coaching internship.

There, he saw Favre again.

"That was hard in a way," Murphy said. "Because Brett said, `Murph, you were just getting it. You were about to get on fire, bro. You were about to show the world.' "

QUOTES FROM....

TERRENCE MURPHY: "If I saw Thomas Davis today, I'd give him a hug. I pray for him that he won't have any guilt or that this would keep him from being the guy and the football player he was meant to be."

THOMAS DAVIS: "You never want to do that -- end a guy's career. ... I can definitely tell you I wasn't going out with any intent to do that."