Photographer Who ‘Missed’ Odell Beckham’s Catch Gets The Last Laugh On Twitter Trolls

Andrew Mills is a photographer for NJ.com. That’s him, wide-eyed, in the background of “the greatest TD catch of all time.”

[Side ramble — I’m a lifelong Giants fan. It’s a fantastic catch but it’s not even in my top three. It didn’t even lead to a win. Tyree’s “Catch 42,”, Manningham in Super Bowl 46 and any time Mark Bavaro turned a five yard dump over the middle into a 30 yard gain by trucking all eleven defenders are all more memorable. Fine, I’ll put Odell over Bavaro for sheer athleticism.]

Anyway, so Mills was right in the middle of the action for Beckham’s catch last Monday, but it seemed like he was too busy admiring the grab and not, you know, doing his job. The photo above went viral thanks to a slight ribbing from The Sports Pickle on Twitter.

“”Mills was “fired” on Twitter that night because everyone in the world knows how to do a job better than the person paid to do it. Ask Obama, Barack. Mills wrote about the moment on the NJ.com website and explained how everyone is a moron.

As the ball left his hand, I switched cameras to the 70-200 hanging over my right shoulder and immediately swung to the center of the field, hunting for the intended receiver, but I couldn’t find one. I swung back toward the bench and spotted Beckham blazing down the sideline right at me, ball in the air. This is the “Oh, no” point. I am tracking him, and Beckham is closing fast. Too fast. And I am too close. Way too close. And there’s nothing I can do. So as I began to lower the 70-200 to desperately grab the wide angle around my neck, the play is unfolding, literally, at my feet. I’m shooting (and twisting the zoom to get as wide as possible) the entire time the camera is being lowered. I was able to capture a frame that’s in focus — remember, a picture is not a picture if it’s not sharp — of the ball on Beckham’s fingertips, but again I’m tight. Way too tight.

Here’s just one of Mills’ shots, snapped with his camera right at the perfect level.

Mills wins. Twitter loses.

I guess we all learned a lesson here — Mills learned that even photographers can get involved in the “greatest catch in NFL history” and we all learned “Twitter is full of judgemental blowhards.

Nah, we already knew that.

H/T NJ.com