Click here for linkBut do you know how Blackburn got here? What he was doing in late November? He wasn't playing football, I can tell you that. He was working out, hoping against hope, but as far as he knew his career was over.
After spending six seasons with the Giants, most in a reserve role, Blackburn and his wife sold their house after he was released before the 2011 season. They moved to Ohio, where he's from, to raise their two young kids. Blackburn was working out whenever he could, sometimes after dark because there are days when that's the only time a father of two babies finds to himself, but he was about to become a substitute math teacher. Why? Because his family needed the money. And because his NFL career was over.
And then, it wasn't. Two linebackers for the Giants, Michael Boley and Mark Herzlich, were injured Nov. 28 against New Orleans. The next day the Giants called Chase Blackburn in Ohio and asked, "Are you in shape?"
Yes, as a matter of fact, he was. Five days later he was starting at middle linebacker against Green Bay, even intercepting a pass from eventual NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers.
Two months later Blackburn did it again, intercepting former NFL MVP Tom Brady. He also made six tackles, including a hit against BenJarvus Green-Ellis that was so vicious, he wiped out Green-Ellis and his teammate, Jason Pierre-Paul, sending Pierre-Paul to the sideline for a few minutes. But it was the pick that changed the game. It didn't win it, no -- Eli Manning and the offense won it -- but middle linebacker Chase Blackburn's acrobatic interception 50 yards down the field staved off defeat.
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