Sep
14
There are some places in the NFL that have a certain funk. You know, the kind of place you get sent when you’re not on the “A” team. These are places you wouldn’t necessarily go if given the choice. Let me just go on record as saying that for me, Buffalo isn’t one of them. The team has been bad lately but in a sick way, I enjoy going there.
Buffalo has the best wing place in the world. Duff’s is on Millersport Highway in Amherst. If you like wings and football, do yourself a favor and go to there for a weekend of spicy bird parts and good gridiron action. Screw the Anchor Bar, Duff’s knows how to make a chicken wing. They also have their own beer which isn’t too bad.
I used to have Duff’s number programmed into my phone’s speed dial. I’d call them when I landed at the airport and pick up 20 mediums on the way to the hotel. Now we have a guy who drives the film up and back so we usually go there together to shoot the shit and stuff ourselves.
Buffalo also has one of the most underappreciated camera assistants in the business. Dave Budzjeiko is a local, quirky guy with a thick upstate New York accent and a thin upstate New York mustache. He’s a lot like me, a freelancer who is sometimes unsure of exactly where he stands. What can I tell ya, we’re all insecure.
Dave gets a ton of respect from me because he’s simply one of the best. I have never, ever had a problem with a mag loaded by Dave. He’s fast, accurate and he thinks ahead. He’s what every film loader should aspire to be. Good thing the Bills haven’t won anything lately or I may never have found Duff’s…and one of the company’s best assistants.
Sep
14
This week, I got confronted for what I wrote in a previous entry about some guys that I work with. It caught me off guard, but I didn’t make excuses for what I wrote. I didn’t feel I had to. Maybe it was one of life’s lessons. Sometimes you step on people’s toes. Fortunately, I didn’t just make it up. It’s what I feel and I can live with that.
I hope they didn’t take it as an indictment of the entire staff but they probably did. My feelings come from my experiences as a freelancer, an outsider, a guy out of the loop. It’s a tough place…competitive and unforgiving. Fortunately, I got some support from guys who could relate.
When I first started doing this, there were guys who looked out for me and guys who didn’t want me around. I was shunned by a couple of guys. They wouldn’t let me travel with them even though they had a ton of room. They didn’t talk to me, they didn’t want anything to do with me. I was used to a work environment where we were all on the same team. The attitude was that you looked out for the other members of your team. This job wasn’t always like that.
There were a couple of guys who looked out for me though. Joe always played the role around the guys, but he told me more than once that he had my back. I always respected him for reassuring me that he’d help me if I needed it. There’s another guy - very well connected there - who has expressed his distaste for that old school attitude that had me feeling rotten. It was clear that there was a new attitude among the younger guys and that attitude thrives today, and the worst offenders are no longer on staff there.
The same guy who confronted me about the blog has been one of my biggest supporters. He had to break my stones and I’m glad he did. Hell, I didn’t think anyone was reading this! Way back in the late 1990s, when I was new and unproven, this guy pulled me aside and told me that I was doing a good job. You can’t imagine what that means to someone in my position. As an outsider, it made my day, week, month. And today, after busting my stones about the blog, he told me I did a good job last week.
That kind of feedback from a respected senior colleague means more than awards and money. It’s what drives you to keep working hard and fighting for what you think is right.