It took the officer eight and a half minutes to convince the man to change his mind about his suicide attempt and climb down from the barrier\r
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A heroic police officer managed to talk a suicidal man out of jumping off a bridge - by talking to him about football.\r
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Officer Blackmore, and two other officers, responded to a call about an incident on the South Carolina Highway 277 in Columbia, in the early hours of Saturday morning.\r
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The emotional footage shows the man sobbing as he sits on the side of the bridge while Officer Michael Blackmore from the Columbia Police Department attempts to engage him in conversation.\r
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It took eight and a half minutes for Blackmore to talk the man out of jumping and persuade him to step back over the side of the barrier.\r
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In the clip, Blackmore starts to ask the man about his home, his job and his family, before turning the conversation around to sports.\r
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I have bad nights too, sometimes, the police officer says to the man.\r
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He managed to find out that the man was a fan of the Washington Redskins and the University of South Carolina Gamecocks football teams.\r
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Using this information, he continued: Youre just having a bad night tonight.\r
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But tomorrow night, when youre sitting around and youre watching the Gamecocks – or on Sunday when youre watching the Redskins play or whatever – youll look back (like), ‘Man, what was I thinking Friday night? Youre just having a bad night.”\r
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Eventually, Officer Blackmore was able to step closer to the man and grab him around the wrist, offering him support as he was assisted in climbing back over the barrier.\r
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The man was taken to Palmetto Health Richland hospital for treatment.\r
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Officer Blackmore told The State newspaper: I just wanted to get his mind off what was bothering him.
