The photographer who snapped this photo got his leg broken for his trouble
Let us now praise photographers, those edge-of-the-field artists who bring us astonishing action shots of our favorite games ... and sometimes get their legs broken for their trouble.
That right there is a photo from the Sept. 15 Florida-UT game snapped by Patrick Parton, a freelance photographer. As you can see, Tennessee linebacker A.J. Johnson is driving Florida quarterback Jeff Driskel out of bounds. Driskel ran right into Parton, and the guy carrying the camera was most definitely the loser.
"The angle [Driskel] was running, I didn't think I was in harm's way until I saw No. 45 for UT going head to head, and the momentum of UT No. 45 pushed both players directly into me," he told Yahoo! Sports. "I had no time to react, as it was a violent hit out of bounds. All I had time to do was turn."
Parton broke his tibia in two places and his fibula in one. He spent a week at the UT Medical Center, and has four pins attached to steel rods protruding from his leg to keep it straight until surgery this week in North Carolina. (He said he never heard anything from the UT football program while there. Come on, Volunteers! Set the guy up with a "I visited Neyland Stadium and all I got were two broken bones and a week-long hospital stay" T-shirt, at least!)
Parton plans to return to the sidelines as soon as he's able. Check out more of his work at his website. He'd probably prefer if you kept a bit of distance.
[Hat tip: The Mountaineer via Buzzfeed]
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