Phillip Blanks caught countless passes in his career as a wide receiver. None could have been as great as his diving grab last week.
As a fire raged through a Phoenix apartment building on July 3, Blanks said his instincts kicked in as a mother dropped her toddler from the balcony to save his life.
“Ultimately, this is my job,” Blanks, a former Marine who now works as a body guard, told MLive.com. “It was all fast, it was a blur. It was tunnel vision as I was running. I didn’t see anything but the baby.”
Heart-wrenching video of the save shows Blanks, 28, rush in and dive to grab the child just before he nearly hit the gravel below the balcony. The 3-year-old and an 8-year-old girl survived the flames but were hospitalized with injuries. The children’s mother died in the fire.
USA Today
