I spent Saturday afternoon in San Antonio at the Alamodome shooting the Army All-American Bowl for the Statesman.
The All-American Bowl is hosted by the U.S. Army and features the best of high school football players from around the nation. There’s an East team and a West team. The West team had several players from Texas, so I spent most of my time on that sideline.
The kick-off was at noon, so I took care of a smaller assignment early and then headed over to the Alamodome. I got there a few minutes after 10 a.m., thinking I’d have plenty of time to edit and send in photos from my first shoot, then get ready for the game.
I set up my computer in the press box and went to work. I stopped for a water break and noticed that several photographers were waiting in the hallway. I said a quick hello and then realized that there was a problem with the field passes. They said too many passes were issued, so for safety reasons, photographers would be escorted down to the field in groups of seven for 25 min. increments.
Of course we weren’t too happy about that. Everyone missed pre-game while the pass situation was getting sorted out, but finally the man in charge said he’d make an announcement before he took the first group down to the field. I went back to my computer and sent in my photos, grabbed my equipment and came back out to where everyone was waiting. Except everyone was gone.
I asked around and no one knew if the first group of photographers had left. The national anthem started and the players were warming up, and I didn’t know what to do. Should I wait for a pass and risk missing the first quarter (or first half) of the game? Should I make a fuss until someone gave up their pass for me? Should I just walk on the field and start shooting, knowing that I might get thrown out of the game for breaking the rules?
I don’t do this often, but I chose option 3. I took off all of my credentials (I had a press box pass) and put them in my bag. Then I walked on to the field with my gear and started shooting the game. I just did my job no one asked about my missing pass. When I came back up to the press box at half time, I was happily issued a field pass and I was once again back on the right side of the rules.
Really, I don’t generally follow the “it’s better to apologize later than ask now” mantra, but in this case, that’s what I needed to do. I don’t recommend breaking the rules when it comes to access, it can really get you in a lot of trouble and prevent you from gaining access in the future.
Anyway, I’ve rambled long enough. Let’s get to the photos.
It being the Army All-American Bowl, there were lots of military present (which is part of the reason it made me so nervous to break the rules). Paratroopers delivered the game ball (pictured above), the Army band performed at half time, a five-star general was present to hand out awards and there were hundreds of soldiers in uniform cheering from the crowd.
One soldier took a football to the face when a ball was thrown in to the crowd after a touchdown. Don’t worry, he wasn’t hurt.
Now for some game shots…
The West team won 24-12, which I think we all expected. The East team didn’t have a chance going against players from states like Texas, Oklahoma and California, where football counts as a religion. Here are a few celebration shots…
At the end of the day, everything turned out okay. The rest of the photographers and I got on the field longer than we expected and there weren’t any security issues. I heard rumors of this being the last year the Army will host this game due to the large cost, but somehow I doubt that this tradition will come to an end.