NFL: Patriots at Jets

Covered my first regular season NFL game, and as far as early regular season games go, it was a big one, as the New England Patriots rolled into town to take on the New York Jets in East Rutherford, NJ. Since I'd only done a few preseason games, the first thing that got me was the amount of people on the sidelines compared with the preseason...crazy. Secondly, on the field, it's just plain LOUD! It was a big advantage for the Jets today, as you can see in the main image, Tom Brady had a ton of trouble hearing anything.

Beautiful day at Giants Stadium today, sunny and warm and a clear blue sky...perfect. Set up and headed out to the field to watch a bit of warmups, a few celebs and former athletes on-hand, like Curtis Martin, Wayne Chrebet, Tyson Beckford and the guy in the photo below, actor Michael Douglas.


Snapped a few early pics, Jerricho Cotchery leading the Jets to the sidelines.


One of Mark Sanchez getting loose that I liked the tightness on, and might work for stock down the road.


Caught a nice one of Dustin Keller saying a prayer before the start of the game with a 16-35mm and a tighter one with my 300mm.



I mentioned the blue skies right? Here's one of a jet flyover before the start of the game, kinda blew this shot, had it framed since I knew it was coming, but got caught up with something else and had to grab my wide angle quickly and messed it up...oh well.


Offense was pretty much non-existent in the first half, but managed to get a few decent frames, and a few for stock of key players like Brady, Sanchez, and Thomas Jones.






While the offense stalled, the Jets 'D' was on...here Kerry Rhodes breaks up a potential TD throw to Randy Moss.



After the first half, headed to transmit, ran a bit late and missed the Jets first drive of the 2nd half (of course it was the only TD of the game), most of the photogs were still inside though, it happens.

Here's a few other random snaps from the 2nd half.

Blew the background out on this one, but thought it created a pretty good image of Brady, he kinda pops out...



Jets dynamic duo...


Jets Smash!!!


Here Brady appears to think I'm open and sends one my way, thankfully a Patriots receiver stepped in front of it, but I think I could have pulled it in.



A few necessary NY Jets Flight Team shots (my daughter who is 7 and in her first year of cheerleading makes me bring some of these home to show her, I swear...That's my story and I'm sticking to it)

This first one was great, just happened to be focusing on her when an apparent Jets TD was overturned on video review. She obviously did not agree at all.




Strange and unsettling moment, a NJ State Police/Homeland Security helicopter hovers over the stadium in the 4th quarter, appears the officer has a rifle of some sort, just snapped a quick one.



Just another random snap of an official picking up a flag.



and of course the post game runoff...didn't get the coaches handshake, as Bill Belichick barely acknowledged Rex Ryan after the game, and apparently Brady ran right off as well...



Still feel like I'm finding my way around while shooting football, but at least my first regular season game is out of the way. Of course not without incident, as I lost my 1.4x teleconverter during the game, must have somehow fallen out of my ThinkTank modular belt...sucks...Next week I'll be shooting the Jets-Titans game, so I get right back out there.

Couple of quick web usages...


ESPN.com

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Preseason NFL: Eagles at Jets

My second and final preseason game of the year brought Michael Vick and the media hordes to Giants Stadium for the Eagles game against the Jets. Donavon McNabb would not be playing at all, which would make the assignment of getting Vick images a bit easier, as he would be playing some of the first half, and all of the second half.

He wasn't out long for warmups, but captured a few of him getting a bit loose.



As well as an interesting one of the Jets head coach Rex Ryan and their former coach NFL analyst Herm Edwards.


Onto the game, Jets RB hopeful Danny Woodhead had a monster game, and it seemed to be enough for him to make the team (he did make the 53-man roster, but was cut a couple of days later when the Jets picked up a few guys off waivers)


Michael Vick on the other hand was harassed all night, by the Jets 'D'...


Not to mention some Jet fans...


But in the end, he was still smiling...


While the game featured some hits, like this one on Kareem Brown,


and some nice touchdowns, like this long one to David Clowney,



it's still NFL preseason football, which might just be the most irrelevant thing in sports, the starters barely play at all, and it tends to be pretty boring to shoot, and even more so to watch.

So with that, I take my two preseason games of trial and error, and like Mark Sanchez (who was impressive again in his one drive) head off into my "rookie" season of shooting the NFL...

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Meet the Newest Sports League, the UFL!!!

I had to shoot a press conference announcing the ownership for the New York Team (no name, uniform or logo yet) for the upstart United Football League (UFL) via US Presswire.  Being a football fan, I was quite interested in hearing what was going on with the league, as well as shooting it, and left with the impression that the league has a shot at making it, as there are some very personable and intelligent people in charge and they are content taking their time building the league slowly.

The man behind UFL Football  is Commissioner Michael Huyghue, who was the Senior VP of Football Operations for the NFL's Jaguars.

 Just listening to him speak about the league's goals gets you into it and makes you believe they not only have a chance, but will succeed.  

There will be four teams (Las Vegas, New York, Orlando, and San Francisco) to start and interestingly, they will play in 7 cities, as NY will also play in Hartford, Las Vegas in Los Angeles, and San Francisco in Sacramento, which could help build expansion.  Players will be drafted in July, and training camps will begin in September.  The season will be 6 games long and culminate in a championship game on Thanksgiving weekend.  They have also landed a TV contract with VERSUS and games will air on Thursday evenings in October.  

For the sports fan, here's a GREAT note, tickets will average $20 a seat...

Anyway, on to the shoot, a collection of media gathered into a room at the Cornell Club in NYC to hear the commissioner announce the league's newest investor, and owner of the NY team, William E. Mayer, who was on hand, along with NY Head Coach, former NY Jets defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell, who is getting a chance to run the show in NY.  

After a standard press conference, it wrapped up with some one-on-one's, at which point I began my edit and transmission for the league.  In the middle of my work, I was politely interrupted by Coach Cottrell, who was looking at my images. He was great, tremendously friendly, and was amazed at the speed that the photos could be uploaded, edited, and transmitted..."Man it's amazing what you guys do and what technology is capable of these days."  

Pretty ironic, I'm wanting to ask him about the team and the league and his work on the sidelines, and he's genuinely interested in seeing how a photographer works, and edits images.  I was very impressed with the Coach, and everyone affiliated with the UFL at the presser, with people like this involved, they are already off to a great start.  Hopefully I'll get the chance to cover it regularly and go along for the ride...

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