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"Camera-gate" photo debunked
Cold, Hard Football Facts for September 12, 2007
The site touchdown.org has what appears to be a screen-shot photograph from the CBS broadcast of Sunday’s New England-N.Y. Jets game.
The image has made the cyberspace rounds and alleges to show a cameraman on the Jets sidelines, clearly directed toward the team and coaching staff, not looking out at the action on the field. The legitimacy of the photo is incredibly suspect:
- We have no idea who this guy is circled in the photo. And, as anyone who watches football broadcasts, highlights or NFL Films knows, sideline shots of teams and coaches are often being filmed.
- A Patriots beat reporter wrote to us this morning to say that this person circled below is NOT the person in question. That individual, a Patriots employee named Matt Estrella, is "skinny as a rail." Also, Estrella was accused of shooting from the New England sideline over to the Jets sideline.
- The photo is uncredited. It appears to be a screen shot of the broadcast.
- This touchdown.org site appears to be nothing more than a single page of three images, including this photograph.
- Touchdown.org did doctor other images, as you'll see on their one-page site.
Still, the whole story reeks pretty strongly and, given the swirling accusations of cheating from the NFL itself, it does not look good for the New England organization. Makes you wonder what the hell they were thinking in this day and age where every game is recorded from multiple angles and then over-analyzed afterward.
But you be the judge.
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