Marine Vet Who Played College Football Catches Child Thrown From Burning Balcony

Phillip Blanks, a former wide receiver at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, California, made the best catch of his life when a 3-year-old boy was thrown off of a burning balcony at a Phoenix apartment complex. "Instinct. There wasn't much thinking. I just reacted. I just did it," he told ABC 7 about the incident.

Blanks, according to his Saddleback College football bio, played high school football in Kalamazoo, Michigan before joining the Marines and serving in 12 countries.

Blanks told his hometown newspaper that he's now searching local hospitals for the children -- the boy he caught and an 8-year-old girl -- that were saved and trying to offer help. “I would honestly like to be involved in the kids’ lives,” Blanks said, “because I know they had a traumatic experience and I know that their lives have changed forever.” The mother of the boy didn't survive the fire.






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Joe Kinsey is the Senior Director of Content of OutKick and the editor of the Morning Screencaps column that examines a variety of stories taking place in real America. Kinsey is also the founder of OutKick’s Thursday Night Mowing League, America’s largest virtual mowing league. Kinsey graduated from University of Toledo.