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Four Getty Images photographers traveled to Tucson to cover the WGC - Accenture Match Play Championships. We had heard rumors that the course at Dove Mountain was going to be quite a challenge as far as shooting conditions go, only to find that our fears were totally justified. Jumping cact, sandy walkways and a very non-user friendly course lay-out made our week grim, not to mention that the first round had 32 matches with 64 players from all over the world.

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Our mission on the first day was to work on shooting most of the top European players first to make deadlines and keep an eye on the top four seeds. We also decided to transmit on the course, which we rarely do. The course set-up forced us to find an area near the fifth hole to send our early batch of pictures using our wireless cards. This went pretty smoothly and our European Tour client on site was impressed with the speed and volume we delivered each morning.

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Each day got a bit easier as players were eliminated in the rounds. Tiger Woords was upset once again by Nick O’Hern from Australia during the third round so we had to file the frames quickly. As a result, we got a lot of web and newspaper usage in the USA and down under. We saw O’Hearn at a steak house and offered to buy him a drink for making our weekend easier with Tiger being eliminated.

Two of our photographers, Steve Dunn and Jeff Gross left the event to start work at spring training (baseball) which left Andy Lyons and myself to cover the final two days. With many of the top players sent home in defeat, the weekend proved to be somewhat easy with smaller crowds and a bit less pressure. Saturday morning we shot the two English players and two Aussies in the morning session. I caught a ride back to the clubhouse with Trevor Immelman in his player shuttle after his match ended on the 14th green, avoiding a two mile hike back to the media center.

Sunday we covered almost every hole of the 36 hole final. The match between Henrik Stenson and Geoff Ogilvy swung back and forth with the young Swede winning on the 35th hole.

The week went well withour clients getting material on time each morning and us avoiding serious injury from the many cacti scattered over the course.

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How wet was it? Charles Tillman of Bears tackles Joseph Adai of the Colts as Chris Harris of the Bears gets blocked and the water files in Super Bowl XLI. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

“I wanted to see what it looked liked, because I obviously don’t know what it feels like. I have a completely different feeling inside. Disappointment is my personal trainer.”

—Chicago Bears cornerback Charles “Peanut” Tillman on why he stayed out on the field to watch the Colts celebrate winning Super Bowl XLI

There are a good deal of telling statistics from Super Bowl XLI that give you the story of the game in a nutshell. The Bears: 4 fumbles, 3 lost. Total first downs: the Colts 24, the Bears 11. Net yards rushing: the Colts 191, the Bears 111. Gross yards passing: the Colts 247, the Bears 165. Time of possession: the Colts 38:04, the Bears 21:56. But the statistic that we heard after the game is one that was hard to believe: it had NEVER rained at a Super Bowl game. Forty years and not one single, stinking shower.

Mother Nature made up for her delay at Super Bowl XLI. It rained. Buckets. A downpour the entire game.

An electric 92-yard kickoff return by Devin Hester of the Bears on the first play of the game gave Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri a taste of the wet turf. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

There are two natural enemies of a sports photographer. Soft drinks…and rain. Actually, I would venture to guess that soft drinks are EVERY photographers’ enemy. Once they spill on your gear or computer, you’re ruined….and so is the gear. Rain is truely the enemy of the sports photographer and unfortunately we all surrendered to the weather last Sunday. By the end of the first quarter, all of us were soaked. Our camera gear was soaked. The $600 worth of Gortex outerwear and boots were soaked. By half-time, our clothes under the Gortex were soaked. By the fourth quarter, my brain was soaked and we were all getting chilled as the temperture dropped. OK, it dropped into the lower 60’s probably, but that seems cold when you’re wet. Cameras shut down. Wet CF cards wouldn’t format. Water on our lenses kept pictures from being sharp and clear. I changed my mind about last years’ Super Bowl in Detroit, which I’ve often trashed. Indoor stadiums and Super Bowls. Even in Detroit, that was sounding great.

Once the final frames were taken on the field, photographers ambled into the stadium to try to dry off. What a joke. There was no hope of getting dried off…for days.

Now that I’ve been home a few days and can decompress from the weekend, I’ve decided a couple of things. First, this past Sunday has made it to my “Top Three Worst Days” to shoot. (A football game in Lincoln, Nebraska the day after Thanksgiving in the mid-90’s in rain, sleet and snow and a NFC playoff game between the Packers and the 49ers in Green Bay in 1996, also in the rain, lead my list. These games take 1 and 2 because in both locations, it was far colder.)

Secondly, going in, I had only “cautious optimism” that the Bears were actually going to win the game. The team had a great season and the playoff games in Chicago were exciting. I’ve shot enough Colt games over the years to know that Peyton Manning is indeed a Hall of Fame quarterback and this year, their rookie running back, Joseph Adai, really impressed me. After after a day like Sunday, I was more relieved that I got out of that weather than anything else. Monday evening, at home, warm and dry with my wife, son and the dogs, was the cure-all for a Bears Super Bowl loss. Plus, my wife had turned off the indoor “rain machine” we had installed when we moved in.

I’m going to coninue to support Mr. Split Personality, Rex Grossman. No Bear quarterback had ever started every game of an entire season. It was essentially Grossman’s first full year starting at quarterback. Peyton Manning, in his first full year at quarterback for the Colts, was 3-13. The Bears, thanks to Rex and in spite of Rex, were 13-3 this season. And Rex took more crap from Chicago fans than any athlete I can remember. Even more than…Dave Kingman. He just didn’t deserve it. The defense lost Super Bowl XLI, not Rex. When your team is behind, a good quarterback wants to try and make some big plays that get his team ahead. Sometimes the results are less than hoped for, like on Sunday.

Rex Grossman of the Bears recovers his own fumble before being sacked by the Colts defense. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images) Super Bowl MVP Peyton Manning and coach Tony Dungy celebrate with the Vince Lombardi trophy….in the rain. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)Sorry, “Peanut.” My personal trainer is my 20-month old son. Disappoinment? Dude, ask any Cub fan about disappointment. Their litany is endless. And like the Cub fan, we’ll just say “wait until next year” for another Super Bowl, another six-months of Rex bashing and yet two more chances for Brett Favre to beat the Bears’ butts.

Here are some photographs, some as yet unseen, from the day at Super Bowl XLI:

In the transmitting trailer before the game, contributing photographers (from L) Eliot Schechter and Brian Bahr go over shooting positions with Brandon Lopez, sports director of photography, while staff photographer Donald Miralle (far right) chats with editors Chris “I missed the flight” Chambers (middle) and Christian Peterson. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) In the bowels of Dolphin Stadium, Getty Images employees (from L to R) Bob Covington, Michael Heiman and Scott Halleran oversee the ingesting of CF cards after the game. (Doug Benc/Getty Images) Hey, Prince…you might have fooled the NFL during rehearsals for your half-time show, but you didn’t fool any of US with this see-through panel. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) Head coach Tony Dungy of the Colts is carried by fellow coaches and players following the Super Bowl victory. (Donald Miralle/Getty Images) Offensive lineman Roberto Garza of the Bears walks off the field past the confetti after the Bears lost to the Colts in Super Bowl XLI. (Nick Laham/Getty Images) Robert Mathis of the Colts goes airborne for a shot at Bears quarterback Rex Grossman. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) Muhsin Muhammad (L) hugs Cedric Benson, who injured his knee late in the 1st quarter, in the closing moments of the game. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) Members of the Indianapolis Colts reach to touch the Vince Lombardi trophy following their win at Super Bowl XLI. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) Getty Images staff photographer Doug Pensinger littered his hotel room with wet clothes and camera gear following Super Bowl XLI. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Scott Halleran stands on the field during 2007 Media Day. (Photo by Michael Heiman)

Marvin Harrison #88 and Dwight Freeney #93 of the Indianapolis Colts answer questions during Media Day. (Photo by Michael Heiman)
Tuesday at the Super Bowl is media day where both teams are offered up to hundreds of TV crews, still photographers and reporters. The top 10-12 players are placed into podiums on the field with the rest of the players looking bored and doing radio interviews. A large mob of media surrounds the head coach and the quarter back from each team and pepper them with questions and photograph them from every angle.

The group of four of us left the hotel at 8 AM to make our way to Dolphin Stadium for the 10 AM start. Two photographers, Doug Benc and myself joined editor Michael Heiman and our hard-working logistic person Deborah Dadlani for the 30 minute trip north to Miami Gardens. Deborah might have the toughest week of anyone in our group. She will spend the week juggling editors, sponsors, photographers, clients and NFL requests.

A member of the latin press interviews a member of the Chicago Bears. (Photo by Scott Halleran)

The Chicago Bears take the field first at 10 AM. Doug and I leave our field level workroom to make frames of Tank Johnson, Rex Grossman and the coach Lovie Smith first and then roam around looking for features and fun pics of the other players. Thirty minutes in, Mike picks up cards and starts sending pictures around the world. The last play-off games were several days ago, so websites and newspapers are eager for fresh images. We take frames of big name players on podiums, puppets, back-up players using handy-cams, pretty anchors flirting with players and the crew preparing the field. We have a quick break for food and get ready for the team in white and blue at 12:15.

Grounds crew members put the finishing touches on the Indianapolis Colts end zone during Media Day (Photo by Scott Halleran)

The Indianapolis Colts walk onto the field and we leap into place to get Peyton Manning and their coach Tony Dungy to start. This is the first time two African American head coaches will face each other in the Super Bowl, so they are a very big part of the game story. We get a nice set of pictures and head onto the field to take a team picture for the Colts. On the way out we get a few nice snaps of the key players and the owner and I even help Peyton out with a few pictures on his own camera. We drop by the trailer compound and work on a few last minute communication issues, then back to the beach to rest a bit before a night on Ocean Ave. We had a good first day and our week is off to a solid start.

Scott Halleran takes a team photo of the Indianapolis Colts during Media Day. (Photo by Doug Benc)