Travel Blog: Tebow's first game with the Jets and a look ahead

Travel Blog: Tebow's first game with the Jets and a look ahead

Andy Lopusnak, AndysPictures.com

I've really neglected this blog. Since the last time I wrote here, I've covered the Final Four, been all over Italy, snapped over 25,000 photos, added three more state capitals (AL, NM, TX) and moved from Sunnyvale to Walnut Creek.

This past week I flew to Cincinnati to cover Tim Tebow's preseason debut with the New York Jets for CBS. Four years ago, I was in a similar situation when the day of my preseason game in Cleveland that the Jets traded for Brett Favre. The future Hall of Famer didn't play in the rain-delayed game against the Browns but held a press conference with hundreds of media present. Apparently, every four years, the Jets make a splash in the QB market.  

I landed the day of the game and after a nap at the hotel decided to go atop Carew Tower to get some great snaps of Cincinnati from the observation deck. It's just $2 and well worth it if you are ever in the Nati.

PIGS IN THE CITY
All around the Nati are fiberglass pigs with different designs from local artists. The reason for the pigs is that back in the 19th century Cincinnati was a the country's largest meat packaging city. The Nati was known as Porkopolis. My favorite of the ones I saw was this one inspired by the meat dress worn by Lady Gaga. Instead this pig is covered in a bacon suit. 

BENGALS 17, JETS 6
The game was like most preseason contests - slow and boring. It was scoreless after the first quarter. Tebow took over for starter Mark Sanchez in the second quarter and led New York to a field goal in his first drive. He led all players with 34 rushing yards and was four-of-eight for 27 yards with an interception. Cincinnati running back Cedric Peerman recovered a blocked punt for a touchdown and then added a rushing score in the 17-6 Bengals win.

Though I love Tebow, I was just as excited to add my 20th NFL venue to my time-lapse collection (Cincy's Paul Brown Stadium) and to test out my recent GoPro Hero 2 camera. I decided to get two time lapses to ensure the GoPro had the wherewithal to last an entire game. I bought the additional battery pack to extend the GoPro's battery life to about five hours. It shot 575 photos in 30-second intervals for four hours and 47 minutes.

Here's a look at the two time lapses.

Canon 40D - 1,045 individual photos

GoPro Hero 2 - 575 individual photos

DIRTY DOZEN LEFT

I need a 12 more time lapses to collect all 32 NFL teams. Last year, I added 11 time lapses to my collection, including the entire NFC West with nine of the 11 being NFC cities. Being back on the CBS Sports #2 crew and looking at the 2012 schedule, I think there's a chance to get possibly five to six new venues this season.

To complete the NFL circuit, I need six AFC (Cleveland, Jacksonville, Kansas City, New England, San Diego and Tennessee) and six NFC (Atlanta, Carolina, Chicago, Dallas, Green Bay and Tampa Bay). The NFC teams are much harder since each NFC team will be on CBS at most twice per season because FOX has the NFC rights. CBS gets a NFC team only when the road team is an AFC team and each team plays the other conference at home twice. However, because ESPN, NBC and the NFL Network get to pick games from CBS and FOX, not all of these interconference matchups get to be on either network. Luckily, this year four of the six teams I need do get both CBS games, while Atlanta and Chicago get one CBS game.

Counting the Jets-Bengals game, I've now covered 188 NFL games for CBS since 2000 and I've never had a Dallas or Chicago game. Looking at the schedule, there's a decent chance that I might be getting both this year.

I haven't officially been assigned the regular season yet, but it appears that I might be doing the Indianapolis-Chicago game to open the regular season. It's the lone Bears CBS game on the schedule this year and my only chance for Soldier Field. Additionally, it's the pro debut of 2012 #1 overall pick Andrew Luck under center for the Colts.

The best chance for the Cowboys comes in November when Dallas hosts the Cleveland Browns. That's a very strong weekend with San Diego-Denver playing as well as the Patriots hosting the Colts.

Sadly, with ESPN getting a playoff game as part of the new NFL contract, I won't be doing a postseason game this year. It's early, but here's my best guess of the 17 regular season games that I'll be doing this year. If the following did come to fruition (it never does come even close), then I'd add six new time-lapse venues (Chicago, Green Bay, Dallas, San Diego, Jacksonville and New England).

WK	GAME
1	Indianapolis at Chicago
2	Baltimore at Philadelphia
3	NY Jets at Miami
4	New England at Buffalo
5	Cleveland at NY Giants
6	Buffalo at Arizona
7	Baltimore at Houston
8	Jacksonville at Green Bay
9	Denver at Cincinnati
10	NY Jets at Seattle
11	Cleveland at Dallas
12	Baltimore at San Diego
13	Indianapolis at San Diego
14	Miami at San Francisco
15	Denver at Baltimore
16	New England at Jacksonville
17	Miami at New England

DOUBLE DIAMOND

After the return trip from the Nati, I'm 207 miles away from being Diamond on Delta Airlines for the second straight year. In addition, I need 11,000 more miles to be a Delta Million Miler.

UP NEXT

My first game back with the Greg Gumbel/Dan Dierdorf crew is on Friday, August 24. The defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants host their first preseason contest of 2012 against the Chicago Bears.

BEST SHOTS FROM THE NATI

Here's a few of my favorite photos from this trip.