The consequences of an interesting claim that the momentum distribution of quarks confined in a long cylinder with a sharp transverse boundary differs substantially from a Fermi - Dirac distribution are examined. This is seen to lead to an enhanced production of thermal photons at larger transverse momenta. However, we also argue that it is rather unlikely that the quark - gluon plasma as produced in AA collisions will have a sharp boundary. We further argue that a smoother boundary will considerably diminish the above deviation.