He once laced up for Steve Spurrier. Now he’s playing tag on national TV show
Whether he’s chasing down opponents on a football field or shooting arrows at deer deep in the woods, Blake Baxley lives for the hunt. It’s an important piece of his identity.
But Baxley isn’t quite used to being hunted himself. Certainly not on national television.
One year ago, the former South Carolina football player flew from Columbia to Los Angeles and took part in the filming of a new athletic competition called “Ultimate Tag.” The series is set to premiere on FOX at 9 p.m. on May 20.
Hosted by Houston Texans star defensive end J.J. Watt and his brothers T.J. and Derek, “Ultimate Tag” is an extreme version of the popular playground game. Contestants must leap, dodge and run through three-dimensional obstacle courses, all while being chased by professional taggers with backgrounds in parkour and stunt work. The only rule is to not get caught.
Baxley’s specific episode will air June 3, which also happens to be his 33rd birthday.
“Goodness gracious, man, I can’t wait for it to air,” Baxley told The State. “I think it’s going to be a very popular show. Super high-intensity. The athletes on both sides, the taggers and the competitors, were all just such high-caliber. It was a lot of fun.
“They had this one course where you’re suspended in the air over a big ball bag, and you’re inside this dome-like cage, and you’ve got taggers dropping down from above you. It’s real cool.”
A three-time football letterman who played for Steve Spurrier’s 2007-2010 USC teams, Baxley earned a role on the show thanks to an assist from his wife, Carolyn Baxley. While on a trip to Atlanta with her sister to audition for acting work, Carolyn came across a listing for a then-unnamed athletic competition and, without hesitating, submitted her husband’s information.
“He’s super, super athletic, and he loves being competitive,” Carolyn said. “After football, that kind of dwindled a little bit, but he was still working out constantly and doing some wild things all the time. So I thought, ‘This would be great for him.’”
FOX’s producers agreed and flew the couple out to Warner Brothers Studios. The competition was a perfect fit for Baxley, who doesn’t need much of an excuse to engage in high-intensity athletics. A former defensive back, Baxley made his mark on special teams while playing for the Gamecocks. Spurrier named Baxley special teams captain his senior year due to his sheer ferocity on the field.
“I was that hair-on-fire guy who was gonna run down and sacrifice my body to make a play,” Baxley said. “I was kind of a kamikaze. On kickoff, I was a headhunter.”
In the years after football, Baxley had to find new ways to channel that energy. He reignited a childhood passion for hunting and even co-created a hunting and land management app called “HuntStand.” A self-described avid outdoorsman, Baxley is anything but a casual hunter. His hunts require a certain level of physical fitness. From flipping tires to hanging from trees, Baxley pours hours into his training.
“I’m a little unorthodox,” he said. “I hop off the grid with a stick and string, a bow and an arrow, and really just go way, way back, deep into the swamps and do some crazy stuff.”
Baxley’s experience in both arenas served him well on Ultimate Tag’s extreme courses, which require some football-esque jukes and spin moves to navigate. Thanks to playing in games like the SEC Championship and 2010’s USC win over No. 1 Alabama, Baxley said he had a built-in comfort level performing in front of a large crowd and TV cameras, giving him a leg up on contestants who never played collegiate sports.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t (nervous),” he said. “But I think I hid it decently well.”
In this era of social distancing, the Baxleys plan on celebrating the episode’s air date — and Blake’s birthday — with a small gathering of close friends and family at their northeast Columbia home. With the sports world still largely sidelined due to COVID-19, Baxley said he hopes the show helps satisfy the many sports fans who are hungry for action.
“I think it’s going to cater to a lot of demographics,” Baxley said. “I could see families getting together and watching it. I could see fans of any type of sport, it’s filling that gap for them. Past that, I think it’s a very entertaining show all the way around.
“It’s kind of like ‘American Ninja Warrior’ meets tag with a twist, so I think it’s going to fill the gap that a lot of people are yearning for right now.”
This story was originally published May 7, 2020 at 9:56 AM.