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You already know this, so this is more for the folks who don't know.

A clean cut block is where the blocker aims his shoulders at the hips or even the upper thigh of the defender. If done correctly, it's no more damaging than a standard straight up block, except that the defender tends to have some big bruises the next morning. The San Francisco 49'ers that won all of those Super Bowls in the 80's and 90's used this kind of blocking, and didn't injure defenders at an abnormal rate outside of what you'd normally expect.


Chop blocking is where a blocker engages up high, while another blocker engages down low at the same time. This is illegal, of course.

Navy, et al., does something different, where they have one blocker engaging up high, even holding the defender. At the same time, another blocker dives at the defender's knees or ankles. Just a split second before the diver makes contact with the knees or ankles, the first blocker releases, technically making it a cut block of the worst kind. A lot of times, the defender has no time to avoid the diver, especially if the first blocker holds.

This is how Bryant Young got a nasty sprained knee in 1991 at a time that we really needed him healthy. It was also how Eric Jones' career basically got destroyed, after an Air Force blocker almost severed his foot from his leg. The only thing holding his foot to his leg was the skin.