Photographer gets the shot, then takes a shot

For the past ten years, I’ve abided by a personal rule: when a play is coming at you too fast, push off, and get out of the way. It’s served me well, as I’ve never been hit during a football game, despite a few close calls.

Yesterday, I broke my own rule.  (View photo gallery)

As Bucs running back Cadillac Williams turned the corner and turned on the speed, I knew he was going to make it in the end zone. I also knew it would be his first touchdown since returning from an injury involving a torn patellar tendon in a Week 4 game against Carolina last season.

Rather than step away, I stayed in position, kneeling, and managed one last burst of frames as he crossed the goal line.

Unfortunately, the Saints' Roman Harper (41) was closing on Williams with equal speed, and hit him as he scored, driving him into me. I’m sore today, but the photo was worth it. I think I’ll go back to following my old rule though, as I'm well aware I was lucky.

- Brendan Fitterer

Top photo by Brendan Fitterer | Times; bottom photos by Brian Cassella | Times

Comments

[aaron]

great shots!

[dond]

Cadillac really looked good on that run. Sure hope he gets more carries as the season progresses

[BBFan10]

I like that when the photographer is getting up after the hit, he is grinning. He liked it. That rules.

[mike]

So let me get this straight. You are in the way of OUR running back with a surgically repaired knee, he is coming right at you and you decide NOT to move potentially giving him something to run into and re injuring his knee? The heck with the shot get the heck out of his way!!!!!!!

[Dave]

ditto

[Sean]

If you had actually re-injured Caddy's knee, would you be bragging about how you stood in their to take the shot? Or would you be quiet about it and pretend you tried to move out of the way? It's amazing how someone can be so selfish to disregard the health of someone else to take one photo that we would all be perfectly fine seeing from a different camera position.
Do us all a favor. Go to a gun range and take a shot of a bullet as it approaches you.

[Dave]

I don't know of a photo geek yet in the history of the league who has hurt an NFL player during a game. Took a shot for AP one time of a Prosche 917 after it crashed into a tire barrier at Sebring. Before it hit, it was headed right towards me and I turned and ran like a rabbit. Unless your as big as Hubert Mizell or Tom Zucco, I don't think Cadillac had anything to worry about.

[Brendan]

I was not going to respond to any of the negative comments (Sean, Mike), but at this point I feel I should add some perspective. Things happen fast in an instance like this -- not whole seconds, but fractions of a second. It's a perspective that's difficult to describe unless you've spent time on a sideline looking through a lens. This isn't tv vision from your couch where you see it all from above, but tunnel vision through a telephoto lens and your peripheral vision is nearly nonexistent.
The last thing that any photojournalist wants to do is be in the way and risk injury to themselves or a player in the process. There were a half dozen others within feet of me at the time of that collision. There are at every game, not to mention cheerleaders and other personnel. Collisions happen, and there's nothing fun about them.
Had Williams continued on his path, he would have streaked past me into the end zone. Roman Harper altered that path with a hit, that was not predictable, or avoidable.
Take the time to watch how fast things happen in a video replay. To suggest deliberately hanging in for a hit is ridiculous. Believe me, 9.99 times out of 10, the photographer loses.

[Steve]

Dave,

There was a photographer at a Cheifs game that took a pretty big shot from Tony Gonzalez. As a precaution he was given an MRI and they discovered a brain tumor that obviously was unrelated but would have killed him if it went unnoticed much longer. While the hit didn't cause a tumor it had ring his bell pretty good if he had to get an MRI.

[HG Pennypacker]

I echo the sentiments of others here who say HOW DARE YOU stay in position while Caddy was closing in. I felt that way when I saw it live. I couldn't believe what I saw -- did that photog just refuse to get out of the way?? So (last Sunday) I rewound it on my TiVo and verified that, yes, that photog is a verifiable jackarse.

And now you have the absolute gall to brag about it? You should be suspended or fired for putting a player's safety at risk.

[Bob]

Regarding comments from both Sean and HG, especially Sean's comment "Go to a gun range and take a shot of a bullet as it approaches you". That has to be one of the most irresponsible and ignorant comments I have ever heard/seen. As far as the photographers go they are in are in an area that is clearly marked off for photographers much like anyone else who works on the sidelines at pro football games. It is very unlikely they could predict or react fast enough to a last minute cut or hit by pro football players. Have you not seen BB players flying into the photgraphers at pro BB games? You armchair quarterbacks (or in this case, photographers) need to get a grip!