Anyone who knows Kalif Raymond knows he would stay as far away from controversy as possible, yet his actions in the Detroit Lions’ Week 9 game against the Minnesota Vikings caught the ire from some of his opponents this week.
On a screen play to Jahmyr Gibbs, Raymond went into motion toward the line of scrimmage. When the ball was snapped, he crashed into Vikings edge defender Andrew Van Ginkel, sending the 242-pound defender flying into the ground. Despite the fact that Van Ginkel was able to pull himself up and make the tackle, he—and a few other Vikings defenders—believed the block had no place in the game of football and was even “dirty.”
“And all of a sudden I get whiplash because the guy blindsides me,” Van Ginkel told ESPN. “I’m not going to go into too much detail about it, but I wasn’t too pleased with it.”
Vikings linebacker Eric Wilson also had some thoughts, calling it “absolute bullshit” and a “cheap shot,” per ESPN.
Raymond had a completely different outlook of the play, and the sideline view provides a little more of his perspective.
Per Raymond, the contact was completely incidental. Raymond was simply just trying to run a crossing route and by the time he looked upfield, Van Ginkel was in his way.
“It was a very unintentional play,” Raymond told Pride of Detroit. “It just happened to be at the snap of the ball. I was actually trying my best to avoid him, to get around him.”
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Some, like former Lions guard T.J. Lang, have pointed out that it would not make sense for Raymond to lay an intentional chip block there anyways. On a screen play, you want the edge rusher to run up field, and by blocking him, you’re only putting him in a better position to make the play. Raymond wouldn’t go into schematic details of the play, but said if you look close enough, you can see his intentions.
“If you look at the rest of the play, I’m trying to get out of the way because some guy is coming,” he said.
Perhaps the most frustrating part about the public backlash to Raymond’s actions was that he tried to make it right on the field. After hearing Van Ginkel complain about the play on the field, Raymond sought out the Vikings defender after the game to explain himself.
“Crazy thing is I actually talked to him after the game. I made a point to go say something to him after the game, just because it wasn’t intentional,” Raymond said. “He seemed to be mad about, so I was like, ‘Hey, man, it was unintentional,’ and stuff like that. He seemed to be very receptive of it at the time. So it’s interesting that all this stuff is coming out now.”
Ultimately, Raymond wants people to know that he is not the kind of person seeking out cheap shots.
“I’m not playing the game to hurt nobody.”
The Lions and Vikings will face off again on Christmas Day in Minnesota.
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