Blocking kicks and Exclusionary Rule

It’s important to prevent the other side from scoring. One of the most common ways that football teams score is through the kicking game – field goals and extra points.

Many times, all the defense can do is rely on the offense’s mistake to avoid the score -- a bad snap or hold, a penalty, or simply missing the kick.

But on rare occasions, the defense is able to design an effective kick blocking scheme that works.

In college, I became the designated kick blocker because I was quick off the ball. Generally, I lined up on the right edge of the defensive line, we would send a 2nd player to attack the inside shoulder of the wing, and I would try to “get skinny” off the wing’s outside hip, and leap horizontally across the front foot of the kicker as he followed through with the kick.

In my career, I blocked 6, which is a lot.

There are ways to block scoring in court as well. Over time, American courts developed the “exclusionary rule,” which is a method for keeping out key evidence for the prosecution.

Let me say at the outset, good prosecutors should “self-suppress” evidence obtained through questionable means.

But in the adversarial system, defense lawyers can file motions with the court asking the judge to exclude certain evidence because it was obtained through improper methods that violated their clients’ rights. I.e., “block” the score for the government.

1987: Davidson vs Dartmouth: One of my better college football performances took place on a gray October Saturday in New Hampshire. I caused a fumble, recovered a fumble, and blocked a field goal that was returned for a TD.

2022: U.S. v. JGG: The defendant shot at a police helicopter flying over his land. The helicopter relayed this to officers on the ground who raced to the defendant’s property just as he was driving away at a high rate of speed.

They stopped and searched his truck, finding shells but no gun. Then they went on his property and found the gun hidden under some hay.

The defense filed a motion to suppress, and to my surprise, they won. I relied on exigent circumstances as the basis for the warrantless search of his property but the judge disagreed and suppressed the gun. My evidence was blocked.

I went to trial anyway and won convictions on both counts (endangering an aircraft and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime) despite the setback.

#footballandforensics

Pic: One of my efforts at blocking a kick.