14 DAY TRIAL // Now here's a "funny" one. The NFL (National Football League) upcoming season has a surprise for all the photographers present at the event. Basically, if you want to press the shutter you'll have to wear a red vest branded with the Reebok and Canon logos.
Imagine that you are a Nikon shooter wearing Nike (as Josh Thompson from SportsShooter.com is). Isn't it a little bit ridiculous to have the black Nikon glass and wear a vest advertising Canon? Admittedly, there are more Canon shooters, but even they aren't too happy about becoming walking billboards.
The NPPA (National Press Photographers Association) have reacted to the new rule and complained about the increasing number of limitations the NFL is imposing.
"I consider this to be a blatant attempt to make our professional sports photographers into another arm of the NFL media monster," Larry Roberts assistant managing editor for photography for The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, was quoted by Donald R. Winslow as saying.
"Besides trying to control what we photograph, where we publish, and to whom we can sell images, they are now trying to turn us into a part of the spectacle. Vests are de rigueur in places such as the Olympics and are often safety related. If this is the case, then I have no problem with the red vests and will simply have our shooters turn them inside out. However, I am fully against my staffers being used as billboards for companies which we may or may not support. The Post-Gazette, as a paper, uses Nikon equipment. I am sure Canon will love seeing their name behind a Nikon. ... Or, will we now be prohibited from covering NFL events if we do not use Canon cameras? And by the way, I am sure that the photographs will be so much better with flashes of red drawing a reader's eyes away from the action," he continued.
For more opinions and complaints, be sure to visit NPPA's website. The Wall-Street Journal also has a comprehensive article on NFL rules and regulations, which can be accessed here.
Photographers posting on the SportsShooter.com forum suggested that Canon was also to blame for this and that a boycott could solve the problem.