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A lot was written in the national media how if Peyton Manning couldn’t win the “big game” his career wouldn’t be validated. He answered those critics with a win over the three time Super Bowl champions New England Patriots led by Tom Brady. With the snow falling outside, we were nice and toasty inside the outdated, ugly RCA dome.

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The first half was fairly lopsided, with the Patriots clearly dominating the game and the score. I remember speaking with some of the other guys at halftime, that the game was over and the Patriots had it wrapped up. But in the second half, it was a whole other team that took the field for the Colts.

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I was shooting with three other photographers, Andy Lyons, Doug Pensinger and Doug Benc, and we decided to take quadrants of the field and stick to it. That usually is the best way of covering a game with four people, although it can be frustrating to be limited in you movements for fear of ending up shooting next to another colleague. We had two editors Rebecca Butala and Travis Lindquist who were not allowed on the field to collect cards, which was a bit of a hassle, but ending up working out ok.

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The scrum at the end of the game brought on the usual amount of chaos. Most other still photographers, NFL Films and TV, are either trying to get within a couple of feet of Peyton or Dungy at the end of the game. Simple physics makes this very difficult to do. Peyton is not a very expressive person, and most of his “jubo” looked like dejection. Maybe if he wins the Super Bowl next week in Miami, he’ll smile.

Streamers and confetti fly around members of the Chicago Bears during the NFC Championship trophy presentation at Soldier Field. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

“This is the blueprint of the Chicago Bears. Great defense, run the ball well, make a few plays in the passing game. We ran it down their throat in the second quarter. This was typical, traditional Chicago Bears football.”

—Quarterback Rex Grossman following the Bears win over the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship game.

You are so right, “good Rex” breath. An unbelievable win in the NFC Championship game. In Chicago. In the cold and snow, over the “favored” New Orleans Saints. It was a great game to cover and to watch. The Indianapolis Colts victory over the New England Patriots was equally exciting, putting Peyton Manning in his first Super Bowl. And for the first time in NFL history, not one, but two African-American coaches will be on the sidelines leading their teams.

Rex Grossman and head coach Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears bask in the glory of their NFC Championship win. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Much will be written and spoken, ad nauseam, about the upcoming Super Bowl between the NFL’s pride of the Midwest, the Colts and the Bears. Between the NFL Network, ESPN, local television stations, newspapers and sports radio stations, the sheer volume of information about the teams and the game will be…well…ridiculous. Rather than rehash the obvious, I’d like to share some of my favorite photographs from the NFC Championship game and give readers a bit of insight on how we cover a game like this for Getty Images.

Our group in Chicago last Sunday included four photographers: myself, Jamie Squire from Kansas City as well as Al Bello and Nick Laham, both from New York. Squire, the 2006 Getty Images Sport Photographer of the Year, is an outstanding photographer with a keen eye. Bello, a several time winner of the same award, is our Sports chief photographer and one of the best boxing photographers on the planet. Laham, a transplanted Australian, has taken to covering American sports with tremendous success since he came to America a couple of years ago. Our editors were Chris Chambers, a New Jersey native and New York Jets fan who moved to Chicago a few months ago after working in our Los Angeles office and Michael Heiman, a great “Borat” impersonator from New York. The guys with the tough jobs, our runners, were Mike Shayotovich, Media Sales Manager and Jeff Meister, a member of the Sales Ops team, both from the Getty Images Chicago office. I say “tough jobs” because the runners are responsible for getting the photographers’ CF cards from the field to the editors, who are located in the media/photo transmit room inside the stadium, whenever anything important happens during the game. Or, simply when the photographers tell them to run a disk in if they feel they have good or important pictures. They run (or at least walk fast) back and forth from the field to the transmit room throughout the game.

Mike Shayotovich (L) and Jeff Meister of the Getty Images Chicago office seem pleased about the outcome of the game and their chance to “run” for the photographers during the NFC Championship game. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

The great thing about covering a game with two or more photographers, in theory, is that no play or moment important to the game is missed. For example, I missed a touchdown pass play from Rex Grossman of the Bears to Bernard Berrian because I was moving from one end of the field to the other behind the Bears bench when the play happened. Jamie and Al were in the end zone, on opposite sides of the field, to shoot the play. At the end of the game, we had specific assignments which we had discussed the night before. Al and Jamie were to follow the coaches, Nick was to shoot players and fans and I moved into the roped off area in the middle of the field, wearing my cute little orange vest, to shoot the trophy ceremony. We cover the field of play in “quadrants” which we do at any big game and which we will also do at the Super Bowl. Each photographer is responsible for his or her section of the field, the end zone and the bench closest to them. During the regular season, most of us cover games alone. This is more than challenging, as we do a great deal more running around the entire field to photograph game action, coaches, warm-ups, outstanding players and other special requests that our clients might require. At playoff games, we must also pay special attention to the fans, before and during games, and to any pre-game or half-time entertainment that might occur. Despite a smaller area to cover in a playoff game, our intensity is ramped up so that we cover anything and everything that happens in our area.

Bernard Berrian hops into the end zone after making a terrific catch for a touchdown against the Saints. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

For the photographers, a chance to cover a Championship game in our home towns involving teams that we grew up with, is always a special treat. In Chicago, the mood for this years’ Bears team and the playoff games was decidedly different than 21 years ago when the Bears last had a Super Bowl bound team. One writer on sports radio in Chicago talked about the “collective civic anxiety” that gripped the city before the playoff game a couple of weeks ago against the Seahawks. Another writer made an interesting point on the same show. In 1985, Chicago sports teams hadn’t won a damn thing since the Bears won the NFL title…in 1963. The city so embraced the ‘85 Bears that fans will be talking about them…until they die. This year just wasn’t the same. The writer mentioned that since the ‘85 Bears won the Championship, Chicago sports fans had the opportunity to celebrate 6 NBA titles by the Michael Jordan-led Bulls and, shock of shocks, an actual World Series title by the Chicago White Sox in 2005. The fans seemed to know what it took to win a title, especially considering Jordan’s consistant heroics throughout his career. The Bears just didn’t provide the same heroics this season as the team did in 1985. But Bear fans still loved their team and the team didn’t disappoint them. For once.

There was an awful lot of “man hugging” going on, as shown here by John Tait and Olin Kreutz, as the Bears finished off the Saints in the NFC Championship game. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Here are some of my favorite shots from our crew from the game last Sunday:

Adewale Ogunleye of the Bears celebrates a late sack against Drew Brees of the Saints. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Jon Stinchcomb, Terrence Melton and John Owens of the Saints have nothing to celebrate as the snow falls in Chicago. (Nick Laham/Getty Images) Chicago Bears matriarch, 83-year-old Virginia McCaskey, daughter of George Halas, enjoys the final moments of the NFC Championship game from a golf cart on the sidelines. Virginia attended her first NFL Championship at age 9 in 1932. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Running back Thomas Jones flys through Bears and Saints in the second half. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Running back Cedric Benson smiles at teammates after scoring a second-half touchdown. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Ruben Brown lifts Rex Grossman after a TD pass against the Saints. (Nick Laham/Getty Images)

Adewale Ogunley dumps water on head coach Lovie Smith at the end of the game. (Al Bello/Getty Images)

Brian Urlacher of the Bears breaks up a pass intended for Marques Colston of the Saints. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Reggie Bush of the Saints flips into the end zone for a touchdown after out-running the Bears defense. (Al Bello/Getty Images)

Desmond Clark of the Bears signals first down against the Saints. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Photographers from Getty Images, including members of the news and entertainment divisions, will be working throughout the Super Bowl week to provide great coverage and images. We will have a larger group of editors and support staff working than at any other event outside of the Olympics or the World Cup, to bring our clients the best possible coverage. And I will continue to yack, ad nauseam, on this blog about the Bears, the Colts the game and how we cover the Super Bowl.

So, I will be in Miami in February. All sincere apologies to my wife and son who will be braving the Midwest cold while I’m in Florida working for a few days nex week. As I did last year when covering the Super Bowl in (sheesh!) Detroit, I will miss our wedding anniversary. I wouldn’t miss it again, for just any other team. But she knows, deep down in her Texas soul, that it’s the Bears in the Super Bowl and I just couldn’t miss it.

Who knows when, or if, it will ever happen again. At least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Jonathan Daniel wears the orange vest in snow following the game. Loser. (Photo by Mike Shayotovich)

Bears receiver Rasheed Davis joins the fans for a post-game celebration following a win over the Seahawks. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

“I’m the only guy who has the distinction of being fired from both of those teams…that’s terrible! It’s breaking my heart and I feel bad.”

-Mike Ditka on Chicago’s WSCR radio explaining why he can’t root for either the Bears or the Saints in this week’s NFC Championship game

Like many Americans, I have fond memories of New Orleans. I first went there in the spring of 1979 with my old college buddy and fellow photographer Jed DeKalb. We drove non-stop from Bloomington, Illinois to New Iberia, Louisiana to visit another college photographer friend, Joe Willis, who had gotten his first newspaper job down there.

We spent a few days in New Orleans, watching the girls in their nice spring dresses. We drank in the French Quarter and listened to jazz. We stayed in a dump of a hotel outside the city because we were young, poor and didn’t know any better.

I returned in 1986 for a week to cover the Chicago Bears in their first (and only) Super Bowl. Had a blast. Lived to tell about it. Stayed in a slightly nicer hotel. I got my Dad a ticket to the game and he showed up on Saturday and found me in my room sleeping. I had a week’s worth of sleep to catch up on in one day.

My wife and I returned there in the early 90’s so I could cover the Sugar Bowl. My almamater, Tennessee, was playing Virginia. We walked the streets of the French Quarter while thousands of drunken, orange polyester-wearing Tennessee fans screamed “Rocky Top” at the top of their lungs.

I quit being a Tennessee fan after that four days. Those fans were a public embarrassment.

We sat in the Acme Oyster House and listened as the guys sang “Working on a Chain Gang” while they cracked open the oysters for the patrons. We ate Po’ Boys. We drank Hurricanes. We had a blast.

My Getty Images buddy Matt Stockman and I covered a few Sugar Bowl games in the 90’s. One year, a blizzard struck Chicago the night of the game. I had the good fortune of having a First Class ticket for the trip home and United, my former airline of choice, had cancelled all of their flights. I got on the one and only American flight leaving that morning and we landed in the blizzard at O’Hare. When I was getting off the plane, they announced that the airport was closing. It took me two hours to make the normal 20 minute drive home. How that plane got in that day, I’ll never understand. But I really liked that pilot.

I spent less than 24 hours there the last trip I made for a Sugar Bowl game. Didn’t even take time for a beignet. If my wife couldn’t be with me, New Orleans wasn’t going to be any fun. Especially on New Year’s Day.

The video, stories and still pictures from the Katrina aftermath broke our hearts. We had always loved New Orleans. Outside of Chicago and San Francisco, it was my favorite American city. Americans have always loved New Orleans.

Now, the people of New Orleans, after all of the crap they’ve been through, are counting on their Saints to take them to the Promised Land…otherwise known as the Super Bowl. In Miami. In two and a half weeks.

Hey New Orleans…we still love you. But beating the Bears this weekend to get to the Super Bowl…well…foooogettaboutit.

Bear Pro Bowl kicker Robbie Gould celebrates his game-winning field goal in overtime with holder brad Maynard. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Your boys are going to come to Chicago and get whooped in the cold and snow.

Sorry.

Really now. We LOVE the Quarter. We LOVE the Hurricanes (the drink, that is). We LOVE the music, the people and, of course, the food. We LOVE the Court of Two Sisters and the Streetcar named Desire. We LOVE…STELLLLLAAAA!

We all want your city to recover completely to what it was. And what it can be in the future.

But…beat the Bears this weekend? Hell, Chicaggans don’t love you THAT much, OK?

In fact, the Saints have as much chance of winning this weekend as George Bush has of winning a popularity contest in Bagdad. They have as much chance of winning as “Brownie” had of winning over the folks of New Orleans after his “hellva job.”

Mr. Hassleback, meet Mr. Vasher and Mr. Anderson. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Now, make no mistake. Aside from 1986, the Bears and the playoffs have not gone well together. 14-2 in 1986…and a first round loss. 11-4 in 1987 and a first round loss. 12-4 in 1988 and a loss to the 49ers in the NFC Championship game in the brutal January cold. A bad loss, too. 28-3. 11-5 in 1991 and a loss to the Cowboys.

Shortly thereafter, it was goodbye Ditka, hello really bad NFL football. For years.

Ditka then had the nerve to think he could rise from the ashes and coach another team to the Super Bowl. Yep, the poor Saints. He got fired after 3 forgettable seasons. He should have gotten fired after appearing in ESPN the Magazine in a wig with Mr. Reefer Madness posing in a wedding dress, for gawds sake.

That was then. This is now. OK, philosophy is not my strong point.

The “Good Rex” showed up last weekend against the Seahawks. The defense held when it needed to. And, the Bears have a Pro Bowl bound kicker.

Hey Ron Turner: More Cedric Benson, please. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

It’s Chicago in January. We have an outdoor stadium, Saints fans.

You have voodoo. We have Lake Michigan.

And…we have “The Hawk.”

“The Hawk” is the wind that wips around the buildings downtown Chicago and when you turn the corner, it bites your face and feels like glass cutting your flesh.

We actually LOVE that wind here. Especially on playoff football Sundays in January.

Lastly, Saints fans, yee of voodoo, black magic, all-night bars and mojo, know one thing for sure.

This week, your team officially has “The Jinx.”

That’s right. The dreaded “Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx.” The Jinx is for real, it always works and your man Drew Brees is on the cover this week. Have a nice weekend. Get your pins ready for your voodoo dolls. Like it’s gonna matter.

Thank you, my friends at S.I. If you feel sticking sensations in your bodies this weekend…ask your barbers what they did with your hair the last time you got it cut.

Hopefully this week, Bears offensive coordinator Ron Turner won’t piss me off. The Bears need to run the ball down the Saints throats, keep “Mr. Purdue” off the field and the defense needs to force him to make mistakes when he actually IS on the field.

Our Getty Images photographer team will be there in force. One guy, Al Bello from New York, has been wanting to come here for 14 years to shoot a game. “I’m gonna freeze my tush off, right?” he e-mailed me yesterday. “Compared to standing on the side of a mountain for 8 hours during the winter Olympics, this will be a piece of cake,” I replied.

The Bears in the NFC Championship game, at home, walking hand-in-hand with “The Hawk.” Beats the heck out of any sporting event in America. In January, at least.

Finally, from my heart: Coach Ditka…you’re a big-time chooch. Don’t bite the hand that has fed you all these years, chump. The people of Chicago should tie you up and leave you out in front of your restuarant in your underwear next week, facing the Lake.

Just you and “The Hawk” hanging out on the street in January.

Da Coach, circa August, 1985. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Enjoy the games this weekend, football fans. Be sure to check the Getty Images archive for all of the photos our great photographers will make this weekend.

See you in Miami. Bring the Colts, please. Unlike the Patriots of 1986, this Pat team scares me enough to make a voodoo doll.

Anyone know Tom Brady’s barber?

Nothing like spending New Year’s Eve shooting Brett Favre of the Packers kicking the crap out of the Bears…AGAIN. (Photo c by Scott Boehm)

“Ditka vs God in Golf.”

“I’d have to go wit God on dat one…but it would be close.”

—A skit from “Saturday Night Live.”

“Ditka vs JD in football photography.”

“Even blind…I’d have to go wit JD on dat one. But it would be real close.”

—A skit in my rec room trying to entertain my 18-month old son.

I grew up in suburban Chicago, loving da Bears. Couldn’t have cared less about baseball, da Cubs, da Sox or da goats. Didn’t give a rat’s patoot about Blackhawk hockey, when they played without helmuts and face guards. Liked the Bulls, but nothing could have compared to my love of…da Bears.

Once, my father took me to see da Bears play at Wrigley Field where we had seats behind home plate, which in those days was the south end zone. I saw Butkus, Sayers, Piccolo, Dikta and O’Bradovich play. I took a 8mm home movie camera with me and shot two rolls of film from my seat. Unfortunately, I have no idea where the film is today, although my brother “claims” the film is in his basement with all of the other family movies. I haven’t seen the film since…well, a long time ago.

Flash forward to…OK, this might give my age away…1978. I was working my first job at a suburban Chicago newspaper when I finally got to shoot my first home Chicago Bears game on the field. It was November 5th. They played the Seattle Seahawks.

They lost 31-29.

I couldn’t have cared less that they lost. I got to shoot the Chicago Bears on the field. I’ll never forget how thrilled and excited I was to see my pictures in the paper the next day.

Flash forward to…1984. I was still working at the paper, but I got a free-lance job to shoot every home and away Bears game. Someone actually paid me money to do this…work on my days off shooting da Bears. I was in heaven…until they lost the NFC Championship game to the 49ers in Candlestick Park.

Flash to…yes, 1985. For years, my wife made fun of me because I divided my pitiful single life between: the years before the Super Bowl…and…The Year The Bears Went To The Super Bowl.

Ditka, McMahon, Payton, The Fridge, Hampton, Mongo, Horne, Hilgy, Becker, Fencik. The Super Bowl Shuffle. McMahon shooting a moon to a TV helicopter. Don Pierson of the Chicago Tribune and I produced a best-selling book (OK…not a New York Times Best Seller…but a damn good seller around Chicago) on the ‘85 Bears. I did publicity for the book on local TV including a interview on the NBC news at 5pm anchored by a dish named Deborah Norville and then a solo segment showing my pictures on a local ABC morning show hosted by someone named Oprah Winfrey.

Then a week in New Orleans that almost killed me and that spawned stories that will NEVER be revealed in public. A Bears win over the Patroits, 46-10.

While I was laying on my couch at home trying to recover after Super Bowl XX week, I flipped on the TV and watched the Challenger explode. So much for the fun of the Super Bowl. It all seemed pretty meaningless after that.

Flash forward to…let’s see…2006. I’m still on the sidelines shooting da Bears. But these aren’t Ditka’s Bears as much as the Chicago fans might wish them to be. They’re Lovie Smith’s Bears. Urlacher, Briggs, Kruetz, Jones, Benson, “Peanut,” and two starting quarterbacks: The “Good Rex” and the “Evil Rex.”

The “Evil” Rex Grossman trots off the field after throwing an interception against the Gren Bay Packers. (Photo c Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

The “Good” Rex Grossman celebrates a defensive stop on the sidelines earlier in the 2006 season. (Photo c Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Yeah, baybee, that kid Rex Grossman, ye of Indiana high school football lore and the University of Florida.