The Better Times

Sports Photo of the Day

While I was in California I was reading up on the disappearance of former Grand Valley State Lakers quarterback Cullen Finnerty. I had a chance to watch him play his senior season in 2006, and he was a great college quarterback. That season culminated in a National Championship in Florence, Alabama. The picture above shows Cullen (#16) in the middle of the celebration holding the trophy. We were able to meet up with Cullen on the field, and despite being the quarterback on the winning team he was very down to earth, and posed for some pictures with us. This was the end of a great college career that saw him win three National Championships during his four years on the team. Not many quarterbacks can claim that.

I had often wondered what happened to this great quarterback. Watching him on the field I thought that he had that something special that just wins games. I knew it was a longshot, but I thought that he might have stuck with some team in the NFL. I had not heard his name for quite some time until the news of his disappearance broke over the holiday. Of course when you hear the news you hope for the best. Late last night the news of the worst case scenario was released. The young man was taken too young. The details of what happened may never be known, but a great story ends way too early no matter what.

Technical Data

I made this quick and easy by using the light sports preset by Matt Kloskowski. This got me pretty close to where I wanted to be. I got rid of the vignette that the preset has, and moved up the highlights slider. I also cropped in a bit to showcase the players a little better. That was the end of the adjustments here.