Suicidal man talked off bridge via hatred of Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys call themselves “America’s Team,” and indeed they are, performing an important service in this divided country by giving virtually everyone a single team to despise. And now, hatred of the Cowboys has helped save a life. Isn’t that great?
Our scene: Columbia, South Carolina. Early Saturday, 3:45 a.m. A man sat on the edge of a bridge over a state highway, ready to leap to his presumed doom, when Officer Michael Blackmore struck up a conversation with him. Talk turned to football, and Blackmore realized that the man was a Washington Redskins fan. Being such, he naturally loathed all things Cowboys.
“I hate Dallas,” the man said, and Blackmore focused his talk on the Redskins.
“I’ll see you sometime next week one day and be like, ‘How ’bout those Redskins?'” Blackmore said. “I’m definitely gonna pull for them when they play Dallas because I hate Dallas.”
Moments later, after about eight minutes of negotiation, the man relented, and allowed Blackmore and others to pull him back over the railing to safety and a waiting ambulance. (Blackmore is apparently something of a football whisperer; according to local reports, he also recently talked down another suicidal individual by focusing on Notre Dame football.) You can see the whole bridge exchange here from the officer’s body camera:
Of course, being a Redskins fan brings its own kind of pain. Washington didn’t hold up its end of the deal, losing to Dallas anyway, but by then the man was safe and, hopefully, under the kind of care he needs.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports and the author of EARNHARDT NATION, on sale now at Amazon or wherever books are sold. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.
