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Kansas City Chiefs RB Jamaal Charles spoke to the media on Monday and had a great run on answers about blocking. As you may or may not know, Charles is able to stay on the field for every down because he can catch the ball but also because he can block. It's an underrated part of his game.
Here is the blocking portion of his Q&A with the media today (quotes via the Chiefs).
Q: What does it take to be a great blocker?
Charles: "You have to have motivation to do it. You just have to be hungry. You just have to feel like you have to go knock their head off before they knock yours off. That's my job, I love contact. I just don't like getting embarrassed when a linebacker tries to bull rush me. I told my running backs, ‘This is the Jamaal Charles rule, as long as you can hold them for three seconds you're good.'"
Q: Have you ever had trouble with a guy bull rushing you?
Charles: "No, if you bull rush me I'm going to come back the next play and cut your legs. So if you're going to bull rush me, I can play your game as well. I'm not the biggest or the strongest but I'm going to test him first so if he tries to come up to me, I'm going to try to cut him and chop his legs off so next time it'll slow him down."
Q: When did you realize that was important at this level? Were you good at it in college?
Charles: "Yeah, I learned in college that if you can't block you won't go to the next level. I try to teach the guys still in the locker room now that the coaches look for backs that on third down will help the quarterback throw the ball. If you can't block, you can't play and that's how it goes in our room."
Q: Who's the toughest dude to block here?
Charles: "I don't think anybody's hard. If you go out there and attack them and hold them for three seconds or four seconds, you're good. If the quarterback doesn't get the ball out of his hands in four seconds, I can't do anything about that. I can only hold somebody for so long. As long as I hold them for three seconds then I'm doing my job."