[1] In week thirteen of the 1987 season, Blankenship and fellow guard John Rienstra were playing on special teams when they were lined up against newly drafted Seattle Seahawks linebacker Brian Bosworth.
The estimated two-foot tail was compared to "a Neo-Nazi thing...made of twine".
Blankenship then compared Bosworth's rat-tail as an item used to distract from his lack of talent, something that followed him since college.
Blankenship had actually verbally agreed to a new contract a day earlier, but never signed the paperwork.
This biographical article relating to an American football offensive lineman born in the 1960s is a stub.