Pretty standard for any large gathering these days. In Oct. I shot the Nike Women's Marathon in SF and for the start of the race I was assigned to pretty much hang out of a hotel window 5 floors above the start line. I had to get clearance on coms when getting set up for the shot so that the FBI sniper team wouldn't mist me above 20,000 female runners.
Too bad those photos are from last years super bowl... These news people are idiots, I don't give them the honor of calling them reporters. That photo was taken to show off the Alamo 4 Star Tripod then SHTF and we think we have a breaking news story. Nothing against the OP but this "News Coverage" is a joke.