Super Bowl - Day One
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)