Headshots: Photograph shows Hendrickson player with rough, scary landing ... or was it?
Football, by nature, is a brutal sport built around the pillars of speed, strength and grace.
A high school football game is 48 minutes of clock time. Yet one moment in real time — captured by a photographer's lens last week — can last a lifetime. Such is the case of Hendrickson running back Carson Workman and Glenn defensive lineman Jordan Thompson, the central figures in an image shot by American-Statesman freelance photographer Paul Knight on Friday night in Pflugerville.
The photograph is dramatic. It shows Workman with his head planted on the turf, his legs spread above him in the shape of a crooked V. Thompson, one of two Glenn players who had made the tackle, is on his knees, inches away from Workman, his eyes aglow.
Workman and Thompson are not friends but are linked forever by a photo. But what happened on video does not portray the same thing the photo depicts.
Butkus meets Baryshnikov
The video shows Workman running around left end for a first down and being tackled by Thompson and Glenn teammate Ethan Mather. Workman, who was on his back when the play ended, used the momentum of his fall to roll onto his head and regain his balance.
Workman "was basically doing a headstand on his own," Hendrickson coach Doug Pearce said. "He was dramatically getting off the ground."
It was a case of a rough-and-tumble player doing something extra for the crowd. Butkus meets Baryshnikov.
During interviews this week with the American-Statesman, Workman and Thompson laughed at the photo. So did Knight, the photographer, who had his own version of what transpired at the Pfield.
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Thompson: "It was an outside run, and I was on the back side. I don't know how I flipped him on his head. I grabbed him by the thighs and then took him down. I didn't even know he landed on his head until I saw the photograph later."
Workman: "(Thompson) didn't even touch me. I remember flipping to get up. I was already rolling on my back, so I just rolled on my head."
The video shows that half of Workman's reaction to the photo is true. There was some contact between the Glenn player and the senior running back — albeit minimal — but he clearly rolled onto his head with his own power.
Knight: "I could tell that a flip tackle was about to happen. When I saw the resulting photos, I thought, wow, that could have been bad injurywise. It reminded me of when Bijan (former Texas running back Bijan Robinson) had a head/neck landing at Texas Tech in his freshman year."
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One photo was worth a thousand words
Workman and Thompson said they have received comments from concerned friends who saw the photo but were not at the game and didn't see the video. The consensus was Workman must have absorbed a vicious hit from Thompson to end up in this precarious position.
Thompson: "The picture surprised me. I didn't feel like I hit him that hard. In the picture, though, it makes it look like I flipped him on his head."
Workman: "The funniest comment came from a friend who said, 'Dang, they must have gotten to you. Did you get a concussion?’ ”
Thompson said the photo distorts the truth. It appears he's staring at Workman when the Hawks running back was is his head. That wasn't the case.
"I must have been looking past him," Thompson said. "When I saw the picture it surprised me. I don't even remember it from the game."
For the record, Hendrickson won 24-3. Workman and fellow running back Michael Anderson combined for 157 yards and a pair of touchdowns for the Hawks, who improved to 3-1 overall, 1-0 in District 11-5A Division I.
As for Workman, he knows he's going to get "smacked" almost every time he runs with the football. It's part of the game. It's captured on film and video.
"I'm always going to get hit hard," he said. "My job is to hit ’em even harder."
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Hendrickson, Glenn players recall the moment of scary game photo
