Get hit, get up, keep shooting: How I ended up at the bottom of the George Pickens-Greg Newsome II fight

CLEVELAND, Ohio — I’ve seen a few fights in the NFL happen in front of me over the years. But one that happened over me? This was a first.

You may have seen the final play of the snow bowl game between the Browns and Steelers on Thursday Night Football. As snow blanketed the field, Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson sent a Hail Mary into the end zone only to have it batted down by the Browns defense to secure a 24-19 victory.

As a photographer for cleveland.com, I was positioned in the end zone for the play, kneeling with my 24-70 lens trained on the field, hoping to get a nice wide photo of the play with the snow falling.

It turned out to be a great spot for the Hail Mary, but less than ideal for the skirmish that broke out between Browns cornerback Greg Newsome II and Steelers wide receiver George Pickens. You can see the two heading toward me as I’m kneeling, on the left side of this video frame grab:

The two players, refusing to let go of one another, pushed and shoved each other into the end zone, out of bounds and finally into me before landing against the padded wall separating the field from seats.

I was surprised by the whole thing, as I didn’t see them coming at me from my blind side. Something hit me hard in the lower back, I presume a knee or cleat, but I was on my side by this point and only knew it hurt a bit. I continued to shoot what I saw.

I popped up from the hit and turned around to see the two players locked together. Newsome, whose helmet had already been pulled off by Pickens, was against the wall and Pickens was over him. Two officials were trying to wrestle them apart.

I walked away with some up-close photos of the scuffle, and a kink in my back.

Here’s a video I made of the photos I took throughout the play: