Day 77 (Sat., Aug. 14)

Are you ready for some football? That's how the song goes, right? Tonight I had the pleasure of shooting National Football League. Dallas played its first preseason game at Houston and I was there to capture the moment. I am not much of a good football photographer. As a matter of fact, I think I have shot a total of about nine or ten games in total. One of which was for a competition, which I could have won if I had a good flash unit. The photo that I turned in at that contest had great action (the running back diving for a fumble), but it was really dark as it was a high school game at a poorly lit high school stadium. Most of the games I have shot have been high school and junior college, but never big time NFL like today. The top photo was the most action-packed photo for the night. What do you think? Did I do a good job?

The above photo is of "Toro" (left), the Houston Texans mascot. He is beating up a Cowboy in the pre-game festivities. If there was any sign of how tonight's game was going to go, one should look to this moment. "Toro" beat up the Cowboy right before the Texans shutout the Cowboys 18-0. Ouch!

I wish Alexis Scalise was here right now. Alexis is a former classmate of mine. She was the news editor while I was the Editor-in-Chief of my college newspaper at Los Angeles Valley. She always fought me on the fact that cheerleading should be consider a sport. "A sport is comprised of athletic efforts in an attempt to win at a competition," the very cute and petite former cheerleader at Glendale High in California, would say. "Cheerleading has such requisites, therefore cheerleading is a sport."

I always agreed with her definition of a sport. I wasn't so sure, however, if I was willing to let her win the war by accepting cheerleading as a sport. As a feminist, I say cheerleading is an attempt to use women as objects for the sole purpose of entertaining hairy, fat, dirty-minded old drunk men (yeah, I'm stereotyping -- Y Que?). However, I guess since it's a sport, then it's ok for women to do the stuff they do (including wearing tight clothing) in order to get their job done. I remember once Alexis said that it's the same way about baseball players, because they wore such tight pants that they could be seen as objects by women who watched the game. Now, I know women are not so vocal about sexist remarks the way we guys are, but I know they think some sort of remark in their mind when they see Jeter, A-Rod, Piazza wearing their baseball tights. So, since cheerleading is a sport and I consider myself a sports photographer, then I guess I don't have any restrictions in shooting such photos like the one above of the very beautiful and attractive cheerleader. Thanks Alexis, AKA shorty, for the scapegoat you gave me to shoot such sexy athletes.

Speaking of sexy athletes... Can you guess who's that good-looking sports photographer on the Reliant Park grass after the game here:

Yesterday-Main-Tomorrow