Fringe: Texans vs. Panthers

I got the chance to shoot my first NFL game last Sunday at Reliant Stadium. It wasn't the best game to shoot, but it was a worthy experience in any case. I got some of my photos picked up by The Associated Press, ABC News, The Washington Post, USA Today (who ran one in print), The Houston Chronicle, and almost any site that streamed AP stories. But while that can be exciting in some sense, it wasn't really the reason I was so happy to have covered the game. There is something about sports that appeals to me beyond the simple spectacle of people running and maneuvering, which can be tiresome. Maybe it's the stadiums, the grand architecture, the way sound has the ability to completely blanket everything else to the point you feel dwarfed by everything around you. Or the way thousands of people come to watch a select few showcase their hard work and talent- what a ratio! 72,000 went to watch 22 people on one field- maybe less (I really only had my eyes on Arian Foster and Cam Newton). Like all those old those Jordan ads suggest, sometimes it's easy to feel like time stops when the most pivotal moments happen in sports, like nothing else maters for those few seconds. Who knows.
Some thoughts from the game with 'fringe' photos:


1 | Cam Newton is huge. I mean, all athletes are just gargantuan in person. From home, Newton is a trim QB running around thick defensive players. In person, Newton might as well be a redwood tree. Players getting tackled sounded like cow bodies being thrown out of a truck at a slaughterhouse or something. Matt Tuck, Houston's punter, had arms bigger than my thighs. Insane. How anyone gets into that kind of physical condition I'll never know.





2 | Fans are hilarious. Praise one second, insults the next. "Great call!" to "KUBIAK! THIS IS THE FOURTH QUARTER YOU DUMBASS" are everywhere. And when players are in the vicinity, they listen- a weird complex. I was always curious to know what players were thinking when their own fans are yelling obscenities at them as they sit on the bench.



3 | Everyone is always looking up. To the scoreboard, or something else, I can't tell sometimes. Probably both.






4 | The Texans media group nailed it on their 'defense rally' video (something the play to get the crowd amped). I've never seen anything like it. No matter the score, the place went crazy when it came on. Even the defensive players seemed to get into it. Loud, perfectly edited, right to the point, solid.





5 | Arian Foster is as advertised. When he got space, you could sense the crowd expecting something. Pretty sweet.








6 | In the end, everyone's a friend. You would have thought players from the Panthers and Texans were all on the same team the way they ran to greet eachother at the end of the game. I'm sure a lot goes into it, same colleges, old friends, old teammates, or just sheer respect for the other. There are exceptions, of course, but the more I hang around after these kind of games the more I feel like rivalry only exists on the field. Not sure why I ever thought otherwise (stupid media).