Former US Marine And Football Player Catches A Boy Thrown Off From Third Floor Of A Burning Apartment [Video]

• Former football player, Phillip Blanks, rushed barefooted to catch a boy thrown off from the third-floor balcony of a burning apartment.
• Unfortunately, the boy’s mother did not make it out alive, while he and his sister were critically injured.
• Phillip expressed his desire to help their family fully recover after their great loss.

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Ex-football player, Phillip Blanks, made the most important and most critical catch of his life in a dramatic video — which captured how he saves a 3-year-old boy being thrown off from the third story of a burning building. 

The 28-year-old athlete rushed out barefooted to help after he was alarmed by the commotion outside of his apartment in Phoenix. 

He spotted the apartment enveloped in a raging fire and a woman in a balcony who was about to toss her son to a man below. A video was recorded and posted to social media by one of the witnesses. 

“There wasn’t much thinking,” Phillip told KABC. “I just reacted. I just did it.”

The mother was frantically shouting “Grab him,” referring to her boy and Phillip caught him in time. His great skill in catching is something he attributes to being a former member of Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, California, where he played and being a former US Marine.

“I know how to catch,” Phillip said. “I learned how to catch a football. So I’ll give some credit to football.”

He said the boy was “twirling in the air like a propeller,” and the guy who was there first looked like he couldn’t make it so he stepped in to help catch the boy. 

Unfortunately, Rachel Long, the boy’s 30-year-old mother, did not survive the fire, according to KABC reports.

“She’s the real hero of the story,” Phillip told the station. “Because she made the ultimate sacrifice to save her children.”

Meanwhile, the boy and his sister were critically injured. Phillip expressed his desire to help them recover as much as he could.

Source: New York Post