Epic kickoff return block video

Submitted by Sambojangles on

I just wanted to share the video of Floyd Simmons' epic block on Stonum's kick return (the one with the lateral). It's in annoyingly slow motion and has some obnoxious ringing in the background, but it still looks really cool. Watching it in the stadium today, I totally forgot the play and just kept watching Simmons celebrate the huge hit.

Section 1

November 7th, 2010 at 12:15 AM ^

Simmons was WAY more excited to have made that monster block, than Stonum was, to have nearly broken it all the way.  The whole bench erupted.  Simmons went nuts.

When guys on the team figure out that blocking is maybe better than scoring touchdowns, we're going to do fine. 

bdsisme

November 7th, 2010 at 12:15 AM ^

That was an amazing hit.  It was right in front of the student section.  I was a little disappointed in his reaction, though -- he immediately started celebrating and running towards the students, but the play was still live -- he didn't head upfield.  Nonetheless, he probably couldn't have caught up to Stonum to help block, but he should've followed up the play in case there was a fumble.

Not to take anything away from the hit, of course -- instant classic.  And the best part?  It was completely clean.

bdsisme

November 7th, 2010 at 8:44 AM ^

False; as you can see in the video, he made the hit at the 28-yard line.  It was definitely right in the line of view of all of the students, because if you were watching Stonum, the block was in your line of view because the hit occurred between Stonum and the students.



The play ended more towards the 50, but the hit was what initially sprung Stonum.

bighouseinmate

November 7th, 2010 at 12:16 AM ^

...but led with his helmet. Even disregarding the possibility of a penalty, I hope he gets dinged by the coaches for that. Not only does he take a chance of killing a great play, but even worse, he takes a chance of ending his, or the Illinois players', career. Other than that, good aggressive play.

BiSB

November 7th, 2010 at 9:38 AM ^

It isn't a penalty if your helmet touches his helmet in any way.  It isn't like a facemask call.  Helmet-to-helmet contact is only a penalty if you strike his helmet with your helmet, not if the follow-through leads to helmet-to-helmet contact.

This is how they would teach you to throw crackback; lead with the shoulder, make contact above the waist.

Jeffy Fresh

November 7th, 2010 at 12:24 AM ^

That was as clean as you can possibly hit someone in that situation.  I am all for player safety, but if you ever played football you know that is a good, clean block.  The goal of that play is to clean his clock without hurting him.  He did exactly that.  Good, aggressive play.

Jeffy Fresh

November 7th, 2010 at 12:31 AM ^

On further review, I hate how everyone is a bunch of football pussies these days.  He smashed a guy.  It was awesome.  Stop whining.  He didn't lead into the other guy's head to hurt him.  If you pull up in football, that's when you get hurt yourself.  God you either never played or played on a team that went 0-10 because you had no idea what it took.

bighouseinmate

November 7th, 2010 at 12:40 AM ^

....of what my life must have been like. Did I, or did I not, say it was a "Heckuva block"? I simply noted something that looks like what I described. Football pussies? Hah! There are a lot of penalties called nowadays that I think are asinine when considering the violence of the game, however, blocking into someone and having a helmet to helmet hit causes concussions and sometimes worse. I'm not one to consider that simply a cost of playing the game for youngsters who can still obliterate someone on a block like that even when making corrections to the form to prevent any helmet to helmet contact.

Jeffy Fresh

November 7th, 2010 at 12:51 AM ^

Most of the time you can't hit someone without "helmet to helmet" contact unless you have some sort of C-spine disorder.  Try running into someone without your head leading first.  It is damn near impossible.  Again, I am all for player protection but a lot of this has gone too far.  You should be saying, "damn he got lit up" instead of "oh jeez these footbaw players are just too violent".

bighouseinmate

November 7th, 2010 at 1:09 AM ^

....I don't think I ever said "oh jeez these footbaw players are just too violent". And I totally understand about helmets coming into contact with one another. I didn't make the first comment I made in this thread haphazardly, or simply off the cuff due to the violence of the hit. I noted what I saw, and it is concern for our players that I made the comment. It is also concern for the plays themselves, and whether you like it or not, the flagging of players leading with the helmet is going to happen, and I'd rather not have it happen to us on such a big play. Even though the helmet doesn't hit first, it easily could have been called, and in some regards, I'm surprised it wasn't considering what we have been called for this year so far.

Now, is that a stupid argument that makes me a "pussy"? Not hardly. More like a concerned fan for not only the health of our players,  but for the discipline to not get ourselves put into a situation where we get flagged for something that could have been deemed leading with the helmet.

Red_Lee

November 7th, 2010 at 12:55 AM ^

Are you a rep. for the NFL?

 

Seriously, hits to the head suck and they shouldn't happen. But they will always happen because plays develop so quickly. Unless it is blatenly obvious that the player meant to lead with his head and hit the other player in the head, just accept it.

 

I'd like to see these suits who dish out these fines try to consistently tackle without leading with their helmets at least once during a game.

MileHighJK

November 7th, 2010 at 12:24 AM ^

My girlfriend was sitting in the other room as I watched that clip.  I can't really beat her description - "I'm not sure what you're watching, but over the course of about 30 seconds, a slight smile appeared on your face, which grew progressively larger and larger, until you were in a full Chesire Cat smile...."

Omega

November 7th, 2010 at 1:34 AM ^

I got up shouting in front of my TV when I saw the block, and I was salivating for the replay.  Teamwork at its finest.

And regarding the helmet-to-helmet-ness: Simmons led with the shoulder into the Illinois player's shoulder/upper chest area.  The natural momentum of the players after the initial contact carried the helmet sides/facemasks into contact.  This is largely unavoidable and clearly not intentional headhunting.  "Bad" helmet-to-helmet is leading with the crown, facing down (see Merriweather hit on Heap from Ravens/Patroits a couple of weeks ago).  This was a case similar to the hit on Favre in the Vikings/Patroits match, where the intended hit was clean and the rest was just physics.  It might be nice if Simmons aimed a little lower in the future, but there's nothing wrong with what he did there.

bokee88

November 7th, 2010 at 2:29 AM ^

In sec 39 you couldn't see Gallon flip the ball to Stonum. No one sitting near me (including me) saw the pitch however we all saw the block. The block is what made us realize we were watching the wrong ball carrier. Nice to see the return team be the clever ones for once.

Don

November 7th, 2010 at 6:46 AM ^

Definitely. He didn't have to do that; a hit delivered to the Illini's midsection would have achieved the same thing, without the dangers inherent aiming higher.

bronxblue

November 7th, 2010 at 9:16 AM ^

That's kind of what I thought as well watching the replay.  Certainly wasn't a head shot (and I think he lead with his shoulder more than his head), but kind of scary when you see him line the guy up.  It's like watching slow-motion of a shark about ready to pick off an unsuspecting fish.  Still, a very nice play.