When would-be carjackers saw former NFL cornerback Robert Blanton bolting out of Kiddie Academy daycare in Edina, Minnesota, last Wednesday and running toward them, they had the right idea in trying to get away.
Blanton, 32, runs the daycare center with his wife, Erin, and was inside the facility with his daughter when he saw a woman struggling with one of the carjackers outside, WCCO-TV reported.
Edina police told the station that two men confronted the woman around 4 p.m. outside Kiddie Academy, and one of them demanded her keys. She complied, WCCO said, after which she grabbed her purse and ran toward the locked entrance of the daycare center.
Problem is, the carjacker wanted her purse, too, and he ran after the woman, the station said.
Blanton stands six feet and one inch tall, played at 208 pounds, made 177 tackles during his career, and didn't retire too long ago — so he can still hoof it like all pro defensive backs as you can see from surveillance video of the incident.
“I just bolted out the door,” Blanton told WCCO.
When Blanton got outside, the suspect ran and jumped into a vehicle where the other carjacker was waiting, the station said: “I was trying to pull him out and slam the door on his leg."
Blanton can be heard on outdoor surveillance video yelling at the carjackers to get out of the vehicle, WCCO said, adding that Blanton said they tried running him over until he had to let go, and the suspects drove away.
“Attacking a parent at pick up from preschool is one of the more vulnerable people we have in our community,” he told station afterward.
The suspects' vehicle had been taken during a carjacking earlier in the day in Richfield, WCCO reported, adding that it was found abandoned later in St. Louis Park. No weapons were involved, and no one was hurt in the incident, the station said.
Blanton — who played for the Minnesota Vikings from 2012 to 2015 and then for the Buffalo Bills from 2016 to 2017 before retiring — told WCCO he's "definitely not a hero" for doing what he did.
But the mother is, he said.
“I think the mom is a hero for fighting back and standing up for herself and allowing time [for me] to come and help her," Blanton added to the station.
Police are still searching for the suspects, who got away in a Chevy Traverse with Minnesota license plates reading NLV852, according to WCCO.
You don't have to agree with Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins' decision to remain unvaccinated against COVID-19, but you should respect his courage and conviction. It reminds me of Muhammad Ali.
Cousins spent a week in the NFL's COVID penalty box, the reserve/COVID-19 list. A Vikings backup quarterback, Kellen Mond, tested positive for COVID-19. Cousins came in close contact with Mond, and because Cousins is unvaccinated he was sent home and unable to practice with the team. The 32-year-old quarterback missed four practices.
"It was disappointing to miss practice," Cousins said Thursday when he was finally allowed to return to practice. "In my entire college and pro career, I have not missed four practices. So to miss four practices in one week and not have COVID was frustrating, disappointing."
Cousins told the media he remains committed to not taking the vaccine. He said he will follow the league's burdensome protocols for unvaccinated players. This pronouncement has put him in the corporate and social media crosshairs. He will likely remain a target of the vaxx mob throughout the season. Cousins signed a two-year, $66 million contract extension last year. The big paycheck puts a big target on Cousins' back.
There was a time when small segments of the mainstream media would rally around a public figure willing to defy the establishment and risk ridicule.
Muhammad Ali comes to mind. In fact, Cousins' noncompliance is analogous to Ali's bold stance to reject induction into the military. Ali stood on religious principle and common sense.
"I am a member of the black Muslims, and we don't go to no wars unless they're declared by Allah himself," Ali told Robert Lipsyte of the New York Times in 1967. "I don't have no personal quarrel with those Vietcongs."
Coincidentally, Ali never said "no Vietcong ever called me n****r." That's a Hollywood and corporate media fabrication. It was a popular phrase among anti-war protesters that was later attributed to Ali to give the declaration more weight and traction.
But back to Cousins. He and other, healthy, in-their-prime professional athletes have no quarrel with those coronaviruses. No coronavirus ever called an NFL quarterback to a hospital bed. Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson has tested positive for it twice.
Maryland's Republican Gov. Larry Hogan is trying to pressure Jackson into getting the vaccine. He issued a statement two days ago about Jackson's vaxx status.
"With the rules the NFL put down, I can't imagine a team wanting to forfeit a game or lose a chance at the playoffs and none of the players getting paid because someone won't get a vaccine."
The criticism of Jackson will be muted. It's too high risk. He's black and we know corporate and social media fear criticizing black people. That's racist! Cousins doesn't have the right complexion for that connection. His critics are free to lambaste them however they please. Cousins' dad is apparently fair game.
The anti-Trump, pro-Colin Kaepernick Twitter feed Resist Programming spent much of Thursday attacking Don Cousins, Kirk's dad who is a minister at Discovery Church in Orlando, Florida. To his more than 1 million followers, former NBA player-turned-left wing Twitter troll Rex Chapman recirculated a video of Don Cousins complaining during a sermon that it's tough to hear the voice of God because of cancel culture and critical race theory in academia.
According to Twitter, Don Cousins' religious beliefs are a bad look for Kirk Cousins. You know, the same way Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X's religious beliefs were a bad look for Muhammad Ali.
This isn't about whether you believe in Ali's anti-war stance, or his religious convictions. This is about consistency of point of view. You can't pretend to love Muhammad Ali and hate Kirk Cousins. It's inconsistent.
I can hear my critics. "Jason, it's inconsistent for you to respect Ali and ridicule Colin Kaepernick."
No. It's not. Ali stood on his religious convictions. Whether I agree with everything the Nation of Islam believes is irrelevant to me respecting a man or woman for upholding their religious tenants. Kaepernick, as far as I know, stands on no religious principle. He's a Marxist tool, a communist sympathizer. Black Lives Matter is an atheist movement. Kaepernick's stance was far more opportunistic than principled. Ali actually believed in his actions.
So does Kirk Cousins. His father and Christianity taught Cousins not to be controlled by irrational fear. Fear is what is driving vaccination insanity. Cousins does not fit the profile of someone who could be harmed by COVID. It makes perfect sense for him to be reluctant to inject an experimental, non-FDA-approved drug into his healthy body.
The people pressuring him to do so are not concerned with Cousins' health or the health of Cousins' family. They're concerned about themselves, including Cousins' head coach Mike Zimmer. Zimmer wants things to be easier for the Vikings and himself.
The rest of the vaxx mob just wants Cousins and everyone else to take the same risk they have in taking the experimental jab. It's a cult applying pressure to nonbelievers.
I respect Cousins' decision to stand firm in his beliefs.
Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer didn't hide his feelings toward unvaccinated players and Americans over the weekend, arguing those who choose not to get vaccinated "don't understand" the risks.
After the team was left with only one active quarterback on the roster ahead of a public training camp session Saturday night, Zimmer expressed palatable frustration while speaking with reporters.
"It's why people should get vaccinated," Zimmer said in reference to the isolated outbreak that led to several players being held out of practice.
"Quite honestly, after everything we went through last year, I'm not surprised one bit," he continued. "I am disappointed that this happened. I'm frustrated with not just my football players who won't get vaccinated, [but] I'm frustrated with everybody [who won't]."
Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer reacts after several players including QB Kirk Cousins are being held out of night p… https://t.co/NKjGTNW1Tk
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According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, "Jake Browning was the only Vikings quarterback available for Saturday's annual night practice at TCO Stadium, after the team's other three quarterbacks were forced to quarantine by the NFL's COVID-19 protocols."
The Tribune noted that starting quarterback Kirk Cousins and backup quarterback Nate Stanley were forced into quarantine after coming in close contact with fellow quarterback Kellen Mond, who had tested positive for COVID-19.
The fact that Cousins and Stanley were forced to quarantine following contact with Mond indicates that they have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus. Under new NFL rules, vaccinated players are not required to quarantine after contact with infected teammates, while unvaccinated players are.
"Something like this happens a day before a game that has a chance to get you to the playoffs or something like that," the head coach went on to say. "This Delta variant is rough. You can see the cases going up every single day now. That's why, for the sake of everybody's health, I think it's important. But some people don't understand, I guess."
Later in the news conference, Zimmer praised sole active quarterback Jake Browning's intelligence. It was not clear whether Zimmer's comments were intended as a dig on unvaccinated individuals, but the inference could certainly be made.
"Jake's really smart. He's vaccinated," Zimmer said. "That helps to be the backup. So, as we move forward here, he's going to get a ton of reps [Saturday night]. I don't go about saying, 'It's going to go a long way,' because we've still got a lot of camp to go, but we'll see. He's out there. He's available. That's important. It's important to be available when you're playing football, a team sport."
The NFL announced last week that nearly 88% of players have received at least one dose of the vaccine. But the league's obvious push to essentially force vaccinations through harsh punishments for the unvaccinated has caused an uproar among some outspoken players and fans.
Last month, Arizona Cardinals star wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins warned that the protocols may cause him to retire.
Minnesota Vikings assistant coach Rick Dennison is no longer with the team after he refused to get a COVID-19 vaccine as required by the NFL, ESPN reported Friday.
This summer, the NFL introduced new COVID-19 protocols for players and staff.
The protocols require that all Tier 1 staff — coaches, equipment managers, scouts, and front-office executives — get the shots, unless they have a religious or medial reason for not getting inoculated. Any unvaccinated Tier 1 staffer will lose his Tier 1 status and thereby be prohibited from having direct contact with players, including being banned from the field and meeting rooms.
Players are not required to receive the vaccine, but will face other requirements and regulations that vaccinated players will be able to ignore.
Sources told ESPN that Dennison, who was the Vikings' offensive line coach as well as run game coordinator for the last two years, opted not to get the shots and is now the first position coach in the league to lose his position after going against the NFL's edicts.
After the news broke, ESPN's Michael Eaves justified 63-year-old Dennison losing his gig, as well as the league's two tiers of treatment for vaccinated and unvaccinated players and the newly released rule that will force teams to forfeit games that have to be canceled for COVID reasons and cannot be made up. Players for teams that must forfeit will not get paid for those games.
"You have a choice," Eaves said. "You do not have to play, and clearly, in Rick Dennison's position, you do not have to coach.
"But your choices do have consequences," he continued. "And for Rick Dennison, it's not getting a salary this year as an assistant coach of the Vikings, and for some of the players who may opt out, they won't get their salary. And if these players choose not to get a vaccine this year, they will have to face different protocols than the vaccinated players on their squad, and if it costs the league and the team money, these dudes are going to lose that money and their salary.
"Again, you have a choice, but those choices can have consequences," Eaves lectured. "And for Rick Dennison, in his mind, he's fine with not coaching because he doesn't want to get the vaccine.
"That's a choice."
Then Eaves made a prediction: "You're going to see more of this happening. You're going to see more coaches refusing to get the vaccine, and that's a choice and a consequence."
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins expressed that he has little fear of COVID-19, even if it kills him—sparking outrage from the media over his dismissal of the pandemic, ESPN reported.
Cousins, during a July interview on the "10 Questions with Kyle Brandt" podcast, said he follows the basic rules governing behavior in the era of COVID-19, but he isn't gripped with fear and anxiety over the virus.
Brandt asked Cousins to rate his COVID-19 anxiety from a scale of 1-10, with 1 meaning "the person who says, 'Masks are stupid, you're all a bunch of lemmings,' and 10 is, 'I'm not leaving my master bathroom for the next 10 years.'"
Cousins replied that he didn't want to call anyone stupid for fear of getting in trouble, but said he was a ".000001."
Here's what else Cousins had to say about his view of the coronavirus:
"I want to respect what other people's concerns are. For me personally, just talking no one else can get the virus, what is your concern if you could get it, I would say I'm gonna go about my daily life. If I get it, I'm gonna ride it out. I'm gonna let nature do its course. Survival-of-the-fittest kind of approach. And just say, if it knocks me out, it knocks me out. I'm going to be OK. You know, even if I die. If I die, I die. I kind of have peace about that.
"So that's really where I fall on it, so my opinion on wearing a mask is really about being respectful to other people. It really has nothing to do with my own personal thoughts."
During a news conference Wednesday, Cousins attempted to clarify his statement in response to the backlash.
"Admittedly, I did not use the best wording and certainly could've articulated it better," Cousins said. "But the heart behind it is no different than it is today. Admittedly, I probably wasn't as clear as I would've liked to have been. But what I wanted to say then and what I would echo again now is that while the virus does not give me a great amount of personal fear, there's still great reason for me to engage in wearing a mask and social distancing and washing my hands as frequently as I can and following protocols set in place, obviously to be considerate and respectful of other people."
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