Colorado Springs native takes Pro Football Hall of Fame photo

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Colorado Springs native Isaiah Downing's photo, entitled "Air Allen", will be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

Chargers receiver Keenan Allen leaped into the end zone for a 36-yard touchdown against the Broncos. Downing caught the moment perfectly and submitted his picture for photo of the year. He won, and then the Hall of Fame called.

"Initially, I thought it was a joke," Downing said. "I declined the call the first time, thinking it was spam. After he told me that I had won, I honestly thought it was my friends playing a prank on me."

Downing, a graduate of Wasson high school, has been a pro photographer for eleven years. He loves his job, and through his work, his passion comes out. His photo will soon be immortalized, but he says it hasn't quite set in.

"If I get to go out to the Hall of Fame in August, and they’re going to have the ceremony there, that will be when it really sinks in," Downing said. "After I won I called my girlfriend to tell her, then I was kind of like: I shouldn’t have told her in case it’s actually a joke."

Thanks to COVID-19, he has no sports to shoot. To pass the time, he's been working at Care and Share. With sports set to return in July, he'll soon be back to work, and he's ready for it.

"I think people really want to see sports no matter what it is," he said. "It’s just that release that you get at the end of the day, or being able to talk about that game last night. It would be nice to have sports back just to get our minds off of other things."