Why is Randy Johnson working the NFL sidelines as a photographer?

When Davante Adams shoved a photographer to the ground this past week, he kicked off a series of events that was both silly and unfortunate. Cue indignant criticism of an entitled football player who takes his frustration out on a defenseless guy, countered by equally affronted cries that the photographer was looking for trouble by running in front of Adams unnecessarily.

The saga ramped up to new heights when it was reported that the photographer, Ryan “Park” Zebley, filed charges for misdemeanor assault and attended a local hospital and claimed to suffer whiplash and “a potential minor concussion.”

While the battle lines have been drawn in social media, the entire case is regrettable, on both sides. A young 20-year-old journalism student did something silly on his first day on the job by running across the path of a player with a piece of equipment. Not cool.

Then Adams did something even less cool by shoving the kid. He needs to be reprimanded for that. But a small fine by the team, a public and personal apology to Zebley, or even a single-game suspension would be more than sufficient to make this right.

But one unintended side effect of the incident is that it has focused public attention on those who normally go unnoticed, the photographer corps at the back of the end zone. And when the faceless are given faces, something truly astounding appeared.

There, among the khaki-trousered throng, was a living legend, a Hall of Fame player, not in football though, but in baseball. The Big Unit, Randy Johnson, is working as an NFL photographer.

It turns out that photography has long been the passion of the legendary pitcher, who studied photojournalism at USC before being drafted into MLB.

“Baseball became my occupation for two decades, but my love of photography never left,” Johnson explains on his website. “Following my 2010 retirement, I was able to focus my attention back to this passion.”

The Big Unit was a ferocious competitor on the baseball field, and holds the record for the oldest pitcher to ever throw a perfect game. The 10-time All-Star was selected to the Hall of Fame in 2015, his first year of eligibility. He holds the record for the highest strikeout-per-9-innings ratio at 10.61 and has notched up 4,875 strikeouts in his career, the most all-time for a left-handed pitcher and the second-most ever behind Nolan Ryan’s 5,714.

“Thanks to the people I got to meet during my baseball career, I’ve been fortunate to have unique opportunities in photography,” explains Johnson. “I’ve gotten to talk to and learn from some of the best photographers in different fields.”

Johnson’s photography studio references one of his largest pop-culture claims to fame as well. His logo represents a dead bird, referencing an event that occurred in a 2001 spring training game, when a dove flew in front of a batter at just the moment that Johnson threw a fastball, striking and killing the animal in an explosion of feathers.