Bloglander

click to enlarge

Joe Barrentine / The News Tribune

The sequence of photos Barrentine shot as Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson ran his direction.

It may have been easy to miss during Sunday's Super Bowl, but a Pacific Northwest newspaper photographer had an unexpected, up-close encounter with Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson during a run into the sidelines. Joe Barrentine, a former Spokesman-Review photographer, now working at The News Tribune in Tacoma traveled to New Jersey last week for the big game.

Early in the first quarter, Wilson made a dash to his left out of bounds and plowed into Barrentine, who kept on shooting photos the whole time like a total pro. Wilson paused to help Barrentine up and went on to demolish the Broncos. Barrentine was not injured and posted this first-person account at The News Tribune today.

Barrentine shook off his brush with Wilson and went on to shoot tons of great photos throughout the rest of the game. The collision later ended up making a highlight reel on ESPN, which one of Barrentine's many friends was helpful enough to post to Facebook.

I was fortunate enough to work alongside Joe at my college paper at Washington State University. I'm glad he made it back home in one piece. Wilson couldn't have picked a nicer guy to crash into, but as Joe now gets to brag:

"I was the only guy to tackle Wilson all night."