"This Is My Job"

If you are not familiar with the name Phillip Blanks, as I was not until I read this piece on SI.com, then you shall enjoy this introduction. 

Mr. Blanks, twenty-eight years old, is a former high school football star, college wide receiver, and United States Marine.  On Friday, July 3, 2020, while visiting a friend at an apartment complex in Phoenix, Arizona, he heard a number of people yelling from outside the building.  Not knowing what was happening, he ran downstairs - barefoot - to see.  

When he got downstairs, he saw firsthand why people were yelling...

"As I was running, I see the baby getting ready to be tossed out of the patio," Mr. Blanks said. "Next thing you know, he's helicoptering in the air and I catch him." He describes his own actions with an air of nonchalance - as if everyone spends a part of our Friday morning saving toddlers tossed to safety by a desperate parent from a third-story balcony.  You neither? I feel a bit better. I thought I was the only one.  

According to the news report, the three-year-old little boy and his eight-year-old sister survived. Their mom, who tossed her son off of the balcony so he might live, did not. She is the true hero of this piece, according to Mr. Blanks.  She sacrificed herself to save her little boy.  

Phillip Blanks will tell you that he is no hero.  He shall have to forgive me for agreeing to disagree.  

-AK