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A Navy victory means that AF will retain the Commander-In-Chief's trophy. If Army wins, it's theirs.

Playing in Foxboro is dumb.

Game belongs in Philly

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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.

knee capping downright CHOP BLOCKING that was never called! Lou Holtz was VEHEMENT about it!

The service academies are not the only ones that cut block. Apparently, the coaches on the rules committee have no interest in making the cut block illegal.

another blocker up high.

It's a two on one concept with the first blocker engaging the defender and the second blocker attacking the knees while the defender is in a position where they can't protect themselves.

It's a great way to end someone's football playing days.

I played D3 football at the US Coast Guard Academy! Served 5 years in the USCG, attained the rank of Lieutenant (O3). I am not anti military!!! AirForce, Army and Navy use the chop block!

You are correct in terms of what a clean cut block is, and that's when the blocker aims his shoulders at the defender's waist, hips, or even as low as the upper thigh.

You're mistaken on what a chop block is, though.

Chop blocks are when you have a blocker engaging the defender up high, while another blocker dives at the defender low while the first blocker is still engaged. This is a personal foul, and should be called every time.

Navy, Air Force, Georgia Tech (under Paul Johnson), etc., do a lot of what you would do with a chop block, but the first blocker engaged up high releases the defender just a split second before the second blocker's dive makes an impact. This way, the coaches can snidely say "nope, only one blocker hit the guy at the time of his injury, so it's ever so technically not a chop block." This is technically legal, but it's really, really dirty, and injures many defenders.

Often times, the first blocker engaged up high will grab onto the defender tightly, so that the defender can't move out of the way of the diving second blocker until it's already too late.


Link: https://forum.uhnd.com/forum/index.php?action=display&forumid=6&msgid=550962

Do the parents know this? The rules committee is knowingly placing these athletes at risk by not banning the cut. I would assume there are numbers out there somewhere that show a greater amount of leg injuries playing against the service academies than playing against anyone else. The coaches should then voice their concerns and the rules committee should probably act upon it asap. Seems like there is a little feet dragging going on by all parties. Until then, a cut is a cut and a chop is a chop and the cross body block is gone but not forgotten by us old timers.

And something WOULD have been done about it? Add it to the list with the officiating and the announcers

The service academies most certainly do not use the chop block. Not one time was a chop called between Army and/or Navy today because it's illegal. Don't care about your bio. Just trying to help you out with these two very different blocking techniques. Many make the same mistake as you. Your welcome.

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