If you're a sports fan, you've almost certainly seen a television cameraman get run over by a football player, basketball player or possibly even a diving first or third baseman in foul territory during a baseball game. That's all considered part of the hazards that come with the job. Meanwhile, print writers are buffered by the more posh surroundings that come with their positions, ensconced high up in the press box, out of the elements and away from the contact on the field.
That's not the case in high school sports, where reporters typically keep their own statistics, often cover games at fields and fieldhouses without any press boxes at all and sometimes even take their own photos. Being on the front line of the action that way can also lead to some dangerous consequences, putting the reporters in the middle of the action.
There was proof of that in the video above, from an Oklahoma football game, where an undisclosed local sports reporter thought he had lucked into the best highlight of the game, only to find that he had instead lucked into a real-time discovery of exactly what it feels like to get leveled by a prep defensive back.
The collision occurred during the Edmond (Okla.) North High vs. Edmond (Okla.) Memorial High playoff game, a cross-town rivalry that doubled as a playoff eliminator in 2012. On the play in question in the video above, a North receiver ran a route to the right side of the end zone, setting himself up perfectly for a key touchdown grab from North quarterback Luke Hoskins' right-side rollout.
Instead, Hoskins' pass sailed just past his fingertips, sending both the receiver and his defensive back cover hurtling into the unprepared double-timing reporter/photographer just past the right sideline.
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Though it didn't score on this play, Edmond North did go on to win the postseason face-off by a score of 34-7.
Luckily, all three involved in the collision were reportedly unharmed, though the North player in question was a bit shaken up by the impact. That makes the journalist's ability to take a licking and keep on ticking all the more impressive.
Yet there was one thing that was even more noteworthy than that: Watch the reporter's camera: It never even touches the ground. That's commitment to the safekeeping of one's equipment folks. Someone give that man a new state of the art Nikon, because it'll definitely stay safe.
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