nelson edward toburen born november 24 1938 in boulder colorado is a former american football linebacker in the national football league for the green bay packers he played high school football at colby high school and college football at wichita state university as an endnelson toburen was selected in the 14th round 194 overall of the 1961 nfl draft by the green bay packerstoburen a secondyear linebacker with the world champion green bay packers was making his first start in the national football league the date was november 18 1962 the site was city stadium green bay wisconsin the opponent was the western conference rival baltimore colts led by star quarterback johnny unitas unitas went back to pass and then started to run toburen said ray nitschke was coming at him straight on and i was coming from the sidei hit him squarely in the hip but the mechanics of the tackle got blown up my head was down and it should have been uptoburens hit jarred the ball loose from unitas and nitschke recovered the fumble but toburen lie still on the city stadium turfwith my first start my emotions were high and i was playing reckless that day toburen said it was the greatest thing with my first start in front of my wife and dad one moment i was on top of the world and then i wasntbefore toburen even hit the ground james nellen the team physician was off the packer bench and running onto the field to assistdoc nellen realized right away what had happened nelson had broken his neck said former green bay guard jerry kramer according to kramer nellen put pressure on toburens neck as they put him on a cart moved him off the field loaded him in the ambulance wheeled him into the hospital and took him up to his room where they put him into tractionnellens quick actions to stabilize toburens head and neck were instrumental to a successful outcomenellen was wringing wet and shaking after that but he made the difference kramer said he preserved nelsons functions and maybe his lifethe 6foot3 235pound toburen said it was a tackle that he had made more than 1000 times in his football career but he immediately knew something was wrong very wrongi was aware of things and just knew that it felt like my arms were on fire toburen said doc nellen saved my bacon he realized what was wrong and he didnt let me get uptoburen whose sixth vertebrae broke in half and fifth was displaced was fortunate that his spinal cord was stretched not severed at st vincents hospital he was put in a body cast for the next six weeksi tell people i broke my damn neck but i had to be dramatic and do it against a pro football hall of fame quarterback like johnny unitas toburen said with a laugh but i accomplished everything i set out to do on the play make the tackle and cause a fumblemost important we won the game the next week we lost our only game at detroit and i always told my teammates it was because i wasnt therebut for toburen his first start in a green bay uniform also was his lastnelson obtained his law degree and eventually became a judge in kansas1