I love football and I love football pictures so much.
Among all those hundreds of thousands of photos I've seen in the 30 years that I've been following the NFL, I've always had a favorite. The best football picture I've ever seen.

It was taken by Lou Dematteis for Reuters on November 18, 2001 at the Oakland Coliseum. During the second quarter of the match between Chargers and Raiders. I doubt that the camera was digital because they were still little evolved and the dark areas used to pixelate, but despite the distance with which it was taken, it does not have a drop of grain. Its sharpness is incredible. Probably, with the current cameras we would see perfectly the gesture of the defender, but the shadow that covers his face gives even more drama to what is about to happen.

"A second before the tragedy"
The photo could be titled "a second before the tragedy". The number 7 is Doug Flutie. The favorite player of my friend Rafa Cervera. A phenomenon of 1.78 in height that had more danger than a mouse colored, an art almost Andalusian and played the drums (seriously) as a champion. 

His 'Flutie Flakes' were for a long time the first food that was brought to the mouth every morning by the young Americans and, although his career was full of ups and downs, he was a fucking crack that even took the Buffalo Bills to the playoffs, something that only is within reach of aliens and Tyrod Taylor. Flutie finished his career at the Patriots in 2005 after playing in five teams for 13 years as a professional. In his last season he did something that nobody has repeated afterwards. He scored a drop, a usual play in rugby, which is legal in football, but nobody tries. I said, a crack and a mental horny.

The monster that falls on him with the number 90 is Grady Jackson, a defensive tackle who had a long mercenary career. 

Fifteen years during which he belonged to seven franchises, almost always as owner. A brave of the grid, a hard worker ... A savage from before and now have no place in the new 'civilized' NFL.

It does not matter who won the game. For everyone's ease, Flutie survived the play. He even got up on his own foot and kept playing like nothing.

A shame! The logical thing is that Jackson would have been handcuffed from the stadium. Of course, if the commissioner at that time had been Goodell instead of Tagliabue, Jackson would have received an exemplary sanction of I do not know how many matches and would have withdrawn his driver's license and flight permit. The NFL would also have made public a video with examples of what can and can not be done. And they would not have dropped their faces in shame, as they have not fallen today with the indecent grotesque they have dared to publish in which they confirm that they believe that all spectators are idiots:

But boy, what do you want me to tell you? In spite of everything, it is my favorite NFL photograph among the hundreds of thousands that I have seen. An overwhelming moment of pure football. The second before the tragedy. And no matter how hard they try, I do not miss a bit of a yellow handkerchief in it. In fact, it would probably ruin it.