You can’t turn on national sports television, radio or read a newspaper right now without somebody talking about the “non-catch.”
Of course, I’m referring to the play in Sunday’s Packers-Cowboys playoff game where Dez Bryant seemingly caught the ball but was robbed of the grab due to instant replay.
I was representing the Burlington Standard Press as a field photographer, and I just so happened to be about 10 feet behind Bryant and Packers’ cornerback Sam Shields as the two fought for the ball.
It was 4th down and 2 with four minutes to play, and the Cowboys were desperate for a touchdown down 26-21.
Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers had just marched his team down the field and given Packer Nation a lead with a rifle of a touchdown pass.
The momentum was clearly in the Packers’ favor, but Burlington’s own, Tony Romo, was doing his best to re-take the lead.
On a 3rd and long, Romo found Cole Beasley over the middle for 10 yards to set up the manageable fourth down at the Green Bay 32.
In one of the gutsiest moves of the day, Dallas coach Jason Garrett allowed Tony the option of going deep to Bryant, who has made a career out of making acrobatic catches.
After the game in Romo’s press conference, he said he wanted to go to Dez since the Packers were in man coverage.
“I put the ball where I thought Dez could make a play, and he did a good job,” Romo said. “Whenever they go to replay, you hope for the best. The calls don’t go your way sometimes.”
Romo’s deep pass was possibly the best throw of his season and his career. The high-arching spiral came down perfectly to Bryant, who battled Shields in the air.
I was stationed at the 5-yard line to Tony’s left, and I thought Dallas would hand off to DeMarco Murray or throw a short pass with only two yards to go.
But luckily for me, Bryant jumped for the ball at the 5 right in front of my face. I quickly started shooting photos, backing up a few steps in the process since they were so close and I had a zoom lens.
A very nice police officer placed his hand on my jacket mid-shot, just in case Bryant and Shields slammed into me out of bounds. The officer told me that a photographer near us, a woman, was knocked head over heels by a player at a recent game.
No protection was necessary, as Bryant secured the ball just before lunging toward the goal line to score a touchdown.
When the athletic 6-foot-2 Bryant reached to the pylon, the ball hit the ground and popped out of his grasp.
Though the ball bounced back into Bryant’s hands and the referees initially said it was a catch down at the 1-yard line, Packers coach Mike McCarthy decided it was close enough to challenge.
After what seemed like 10 minutes, the referees reversed the call on the field and called it incomplete because Bryant didn’t complete the entire process of a catch.
A receiver in the air must catch the ball and maintain possession when falling to the ground.
Call doomed the ‘Boys
It’s a complicated rule and one that will be talked about forever and possibly changed by the league.
The Cowboys went from being in an easy position to score the go-ahead touchdown to giving the ball back to Aaron Rodgers, who was lights out in the second half.
The Lambeau Field crowd roared in excitement after the ruling was announced, and the Packers essentially ran out the clock with a couple big first downs, including Randall Cobb’s gift catch where the ball was deflected and still landed in his diving arms.
Instead of focusing on Rodgers’ second-half heroics and the fact that Green Bay won and advanced to the NFC Championship, all anyone could talk about was the “non-catch.”
It was replayed countless times, with many experts calling it a catch and a horrible call.
Well, it wasn’t a catch, according to the NFL rules. But if the catch wasn’t challenged by the Packers, I don’t think too many would’ve been surprised.
It could’ve gone either way. It’s just too bad Dallas’ two playoff games were decided by controversial calls, first against the Lions now Sunday.
15 minutes of fame
After about three hours of interviews and posting information and photos to our social media sites after the game, I finally sat down for some food at a packed Brett Favre’s Steakhouse, located just a couple blocks from Lambeau Field.
The place was packed to the gills, and I ended up taking a seat at the bar.
From all the tweeting during the game and texting my wife, my phone died late in the game while I was still on the field taking photos.
At the restaurant, luckily, they let me charge my phone. It was still near battery death when my wife sent me an interesting text.
It was a screen shot of the controversial play, and yours truly was in the background on the TV screen. Blue winter jacket, weird tan photographer vest, black jeans, Timberland boots, hood, camera and all, you couldn’t see my face but it was clear I was busy shooting one of the biggest plays in the history of the NFL.
My wife was freaking out and just had to post it to Facebook, and my friends have been all over the post since.
It was a dream come true to be down on the field taking pictures, especially after the game when Green Bay’s Mike Neal asked me to take a candid shot of him and a Cowboys player. Being on TV over and over again with one of the most replayed plays ever didn’t suck, either.
The football and journalism Gods were looking out for me Sunday, and the photos of the big play turned out pretty good and are in this week’s Standard Press.
Romo made Burlington proud and did everything he could to will his team to victory. He went 15-for-19 with 191 yards and touchdowns and made one of the best throws I’ve ever seen to Bryant.
Unfortunately for the Cowboys, the ball bounced in the favor of Green Bay.
Instead of Romo and Bryant being the heroes, the biggest story became Rodgers’ valiant comeback down 21-13 in the second half on one good leg, as he hobbled through a torn calf muscle.
Working with the big dogs
I worked around some of the biggest players in the business, from Fox’s Erin Andrews to ESPN’s Rachel Nichols, Ed Werder and Tim Cowlishaw.
Being around NFL Films photographers and meeting people from USA Today and NFL Network was a pretty surreal experience, and I had to restrain myself from asking a USA Today reporter a million career questions while the game was still going on.
As hard as it was to stay calm in a football wonderland, I kept my Packers cheering to a quiet roar, as I had to stop myself on some plays.
I didn’t make a scene, and that’s all that matters.
Layered in the arctic weather, I noticed I had a Packers hoodie on in the Cowboys’ press conference. I quickly took it off and went about my business, standing shoulder to shoulder with much more famous colleagues and getting a few questions in.
People see these men and women on ESPN and Fox and other big outlets and think they’re big-time stars just like players.
But Andrews and Nichols, though more attractive in person, were dressed the same as the assistant producer from Green Bay or the intern from small-town Wisconsin.
Big names like Werder and Cowlishaw, who regularly appear on ESPN programming, were dressed just as normal as myself and everybody else.
Though their Twitter accounts and bank rolls say otherwise, they’re really just simple reporters at the end of day, going for the best story just like me.
I may work for a small-town paper, but I felt like a major player Sunday at Lambeau Field. Especially when jogging through the tunnel to get onto the field. I was ready to play some ball, figuratively of course.
Hopefully, I get back to Lambeau soon to cover another game. With Romo and Rodgers both playing at elite levels, these teams may not be done facing off in the playoffs.
It’s back to reality this week with the winter high school season ramping up. Sleep has been scarce with the hustle and bustle of two deadlines this week, but I don’t care.
For one afternoon, I was in sports journalism heaven, and I don’t think this will wear off for a few weeks.
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