Finding meaning in a meaningless game

It will go down in the annals of history as just another meaningless pre-season football game between Tampa Bay and Houston which saw the Buccaneers overcome the home team 24-17.
That game was played on a Thursday night, featured the second string as starters and left more empty seats than fans in the stands of Reliant Stadium. At least that’s the way it looked from the field. As the game wore on the stands slowly filled, but it was far from being a sell-out.
As meaningless as the game may seem, there are some people to whom it was priceless. One of them, to be sure, is Neal Rackers, who gave Chris Brown, the last original Texan, the boot in the contest for the kicking job. There are a few other players who are still suiting up based on their performance in that game. There are still others who are not. To each of them, the game was not meaningless.
The game was also special for a friend of mine, Bryan Borden, who took his 3-year-old son, Bryce, to his first professional football game.
“I think the atmosphere of the great fans and the big stadium really had him in awe,” Bryan said. “He loved watching the great hits and asked a lot of questions. We had a great time. I think his favorite parts of the night were yelling at the players, eating ice cream, and the train ride (park and ride).”
The game was certainly not meaningless to me. I had the privilege of photographing the game from the sidelines. It’s the third time I’ve photographed an NFL game and the fifth time I’ve shot a pro game. The first non-NFL game was the Denver Gold vs. the New Jersey Generals in the USFL and the other was the Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks vs. the New York/New Jersey Knights of the World League of American Football. The other NFL games I did were the Denver Broncos vs. the Arizona Cardinals and the Minnesota Vikings vs. the Miami Dolphins.
Being on the sidelines of an NFL game – even a pre-season game – is a unique experience. It’s easy to be in awe of being up-close with big name superstars of the game. I’ve been around enough celebrities in my day that, while I still get a little tingle about it, I really don’t get starstruck anymore.
This was the first professional game since before 9/11 that I’ve done and I must say that I wasn’t prepared for the increased security. In addition to showing my ID to get my press credentials and having my bag thoroughly searched, I also had to sign in again inside the stadium and was then issued a red photo vest.
Inside there is a room just for still and video photographers that is well guarded and equipped with computer ports, outlets, televisions, and a nice spread of food and drink. Annie Green was one of the Texans people assigned to assist us and I have to give her kudos for being very kind and able to anticipate our needs before we were even aware of them.
Out on the field, the sidelines were crowded. After the pre-game VIPs were sent upstairs we got a little breathing room, but there were still an awful lot of press people interested in a “meaningless” pre-season game. Aside from all us media folks, players and coaches, you have a ton of other team officials, game officials, mascot, cheerleaders and others whose business I could not discern who were all vying for precious space to view the game.
I was there to observe the sidelines as much as the game. At least, that was my premise for being there. Thanks to Vince Yokom and the loan of his camera and zoom lenses, coupled with my company-issued Canon, I had two cameras to shoot with and ended up getting more than 300 shots. You sure couldn’t do that in the days of film cameras.
There is nothing like being at an event live to really get a feel for what is going on. The difference is like listening to your favorite group on your iPod versus having front-row seats at their concert.
As enjoyable as this experience was, I was still very disappointed that the starters sat out the game. It was like watching the junior varsity play after you’ve been conditioned to enjoy varsity ball. Still, when you’ve got guys battling for a spot on the team, you tend to get a lot of colorful action as they put it all out on the line.
These are the guys, like me and my friend Bryan, for whom the game was anything but meaningless – even if the wrong team won.