The Risky World of Sports Photography   

Imagine panning your $6,000 Swiss camera across a sun-brightened football field, one snap away from capturing the grace of Emmitt Smith high-stepping out of the grasp of a defensive lineman, when suddenly you are staring up at that sun, trying to find not only your camera but your lungs, wondering where the hell you are.

Sports photographers don't have to imagine such scenes; they recognize that, each time they pack their gear, they could be the next casualty of their profession. The fact that almost every sports fan has seen an unsuspecting photographer blindsided by a 320-pound lineman, or Charles Barkley jumping one step too many trying to save the basketball and winding up in a photographer's lap, is a good indication of just how dangerous the life of the professional sports photographer can be.

The potential for injury on assignment has been a hardball fact of sports photography ever since print photographers, and later television crews, were first granted press credentials. Yet regulations designed to protect sports photographers from becoming part of the action they cover are sparse. Perhaps it's just as well that there are so few rules, as they rarely succeed in preventing what seem to be inevitable accidents.

The National Football League, for example, requires photographers to stay within a designated area six feet beyond the out-of-bounds line, according to NFL Communications Director Greg Aiello. But that doesn't always help when a player barrels head first into the throngs on the sidelines.

John Sunderland, a 22-year veteran of photography with the Denver Post, was at one time a limping example of the drawbacks of sideline coverage. "I was shooting a Broncos game when [Denver running back] Floyd Little came around on a sweep, and I knew he was coming right at me," Sunderland says. "But there was nowhere for me to go. The larger lenses we use are deceptive because the action is on you before the viewfinder gives you true depth."

Sunderland and his equipment survived the collision, but Michael Gallagher, a cameraman for WJET-TV in Erie, Pennsylvania, was not so fortunate. During a Cleveland Browns game in 1988, he was knocked unconscious by Haywood Jeffires of the Houston Oilers on a kickoff return. Gallagher endured 13 operations to correct his injuries. He sued the Browns for damages and won a $590,000 settlement, but still carries enough screws and rods in his body to trigger airport security alarms.

The NFL's Aiello says all the precautions in the world can't change the basic rule of sports photography — that risking injury is simply part of the job.

Tony Tomsic, a former contract photographer with Sports Illustrated, could not have been prepared for the injury he suffered while covering the Browns, or for the subsequent insult. Tomsic had his camera trained on Billy Masters as he came across on a slant pass pattern and was chased out of bounds. "I saw the play develop, but I did not see the hit from behind that threw him into me, and I took a helmet right under the nose," Tomsic recalls. "Gary Collins, a receiver for the Browns, was standing over me after I came to, shouting, 'Now you know how it feels!' "

While some Major League Baseball teams stipulate that sports photographers must remain in pits resembling foxholes in order to be protected while they cover the diamond, that did not help Roy Foley, a photographer for the Chicago Sun-Times. While covering a Cleveland Indians game, he took a line drive to the head, suffering a concussion that left him benched for three months.

The National Basketball Association also tries to keep sports photographers off the injured reserve list. Photographers and cameramen are required to sit on a line four feet behind the baseline, a distance that hardly provides enough of a cushion, as many have learned the hard way.

But Andy Hayt, a contract photographer for the NBA, says while he's been stepped on and run over on several occasions, he appreciates the NBA regulations.

"The association gives us a three-foot escape lane under the basket, and we use it," he says. "Staying focused on the action helps keep us out of harm's way. Still, about one photographer a year gets really clobbered."

Denver Post photographer John Leyba got his turn during a Denver Nuggets/Chicago Bulls game. "I was focusing on Scottie Pippen when he flew right into me," Leyba recalls. "Me and my equipment kept him from getting hurt, and we both laughed about the incident."

In general, most sports photographers view their literal run-ins with sports celebrities with a healthy combination of concern and awe. While they would rather shoot the action than be a part of it, most sports photographers learn to accept the fact that each time they focus, the shot they get might not come from the camera.