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I possess a deep-seeded hatred for the chowdah heads from the northeast that goes back several years. It comes from personal experiences where, while working in a professional capacity, I have been treated with utter disdain and disrespect. I have seen cops, team and stadium security, fans and players treat so many working people in such an abhorent manner that I want to stay as far away as possible. It is really depressing to be a part of.

If you want to see an example of this kind of shenanigan, roll your TiVo back to the point where Belichick is running off the field and take note of how his bald security guy treats a referee, an actual league employee. This incident was mild compared to the kind of crap that goes on with these creeps every day. It’s disgusting.

On this night, good defeated evil. Goliath fell. It was like Buster Douglas bangin’ on iron Mike. I have never liked the Giants, but tonight I became a fan.

Thanks, Eli and Co. for saving the world.

Like black and white, chocolate and vanilla, my jobs last weekend couldn’t have been more starkly opposite. The work was simar but the atmospheres felt distinctly playoffs and pre-season. On Saturday night I was in East Rutherford to cover history as the Patriots would bid for football immortality - an undefeated 16 game regular season.

Usually interconference games are kind of dull. Not this one. The Pats are clearly one of history’s best squads and the Giants, though limping into the playoffs, still have enough juice to ruin someone’s day. The game didn’t disappoint but the outcome did. I think most of America was pulling for big blue but it just wasn’t enough. It was loud in there though and for much of the game the Giants gave us hope that the “any given Sunday” thing isn’t just a dream.

After a long season of shooting matchups like Cardinals/Ravens it was really exciting to be in a playoff-like atmosphere. I got home around 2am and then headed off for the Linc where I would experience the complete opposite effect.

The Eagles/Bills tilt was like the fourth preseason game. You know, the one where season ticket holders give away their seats and the dull din of the place ends up sounding like a funeral home. The Eagles won and blah, blah, blah. I can’t wait to get to the playoffs and get that intensity back.

This past weekend in Nashville I had a really young kid as my runner. I mean he was a fresh faced, skinny little dude who weighs as much as the crap he had to schlep for me during the game. I think the NFL has some “ball hair” rule on the books for sideline access but this kid got in anyway.

Turns out, he was one of the best runners I have had in ages! Seriously. He picked up on what we were doing, did everything I told him to do, didn’t bug me at all, and was polite as all get out. I felt compelled to tip the kid since he did such a good job. And just as I was beginning to lose hope.

Sometimes a less than appealing NFL matchup ends up being a pretty decent game. I was sent to Baltimore last weekend to shoot the Cardinals at the Ravens. Not much appeal there, but hey, it’s an NFL game and I can’t think of a better way to spend a Sunday in the fall.

The Ravens dominated the first half, moving the ball at will, but were unable to score touchdowns. They had a 20 - 3 lead when the Cards replaced their young quarterback Matt Leinhart with the wily veteran Kurt Warner. The offense went “no huddle” and the redbirds started moving the ball. By the 4th quarter the score was knotted at 23!

The Ravens moved into position for a game winning field goal with a few seconds left and Matt Stover drilled it though for the win. The capacity crowd of 71,000 loved it!

So that’s three game winning field goals in three weeks for me. Denver beat Buffalo with a kick as time expired in week 1. Then Detroit nipped Minnesota with a field gaol in overtime. And now this. I hope the football gods keep ‘em coming.

One of the most frequent topics I’m asked about is getting hit on the sidelines while shooting. It happens to someone nearly every game. It’s like being in a plane crash or getting hit by lightning - it usually happens to someone else.

The first time I got hit was in Minneapolis on a Sunday night during a game between the Eagles and Vikings. It was Primetime in Philly and everyone saw the carnage when Orlando Thomas flattened my ass on national television. The hit was so clean, so incredibly square and pure that I don’t think either of us felt it. It’s like when you hit a golf ball just right. There’s no shock, no vibration, just a satisfyingly soft bit of feedback that tells you you struck it just right.

I had no pain - in fact, the only sign that I had been hit was a strawberry on my elbow thanks to that lovely turf in the Metrodome. Of course, I was around thirty years old and fairly fit so I didn’t expect to feel sore. These days I’d never get away with that.

Fast forward about 12 years to September 9, 2007. I’m 42 and I’m now regularly sore from the rigors of sleeping. It’s tough to just lay there for 8 hours. Anyway, I’m in my usual position, seated along the side of the end zone as the Broncos are driving for a score. Cutler releases the ball. I tilt up, find it, lock on and roll focus. Everything slows down. I immediately start thinking about getting crushed because if the ball isn’t caught it’s going to hit me. It’s one of those timing plays where the quarterback just lobs the ball up into the corner of the end zone and hopes his receiver can make a play. And make a play he did.

Brandon Marshall, a 6′4″ 230lb. receiver made a perfect grab, tapped both toes inbounds and fell directly into me. My lens hit him right between the numbers, jamming the viewfinder into the bridge of my nose. What’s a little blood between friends?

Marshall recovered nicely and went on his way, celebrating a truly great catch. I dusted myself off, mopped the blood off my nose and commented that I couldn’t wait to see that one on HBO. As it turns out, my shot was nearly as well executed as the Broncos’ touchdown play. The fact that I didn’t bail out on the shot makes it - in my humble opinion - one of the best shots of a touchdown from a guy who got creamed. I mean, I was steady until the absolute moment of impact and I widened out just at the right moment so you could see him catch the ball and then tap both toes inbounds. I think I nailed it and if you’re a competitive sideline shooter, those are the moments you live for.

Lots of friends and colleagues commented on the shot but very few asked if I had any lasting effects. It turns out that this hit was much harder to recover from than the shot I had taken more than a decade earlier. It’s three weeks on and I still have some soreness in my chest and back.

It’s a bitch getting old.

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.

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.

People are always asking me about my work for NFL Films. They seem fascinated by it. I’ll admit it’s a good job on a number of levels. Not the least of which is the marketing factor for the rest of my business. People are impressed by NFL Films and working for them seems to trick people into thinking I’m good. I shouldn’t say that. I just wanna stay humble.

Quiet confidence is good. There are plenty of guys I work with who think their crap doesn’t stink just because they shoot guys who throw a ball real good. Guess what, Hoss, you ain’t saving lives. Let’s not lose sight of that.

I really enjoy being on an NFL sideline in the fall so I’ll probably keep doing this as long as they let me. I’m certainly not doing it for the money. ‘Nuff said on that one.

I shot the Vikings/Jets game at the Meadowlands in week 2 of the preseason. NFL Films produces a show called Hey Rookie which airs on ESPN. They follow some of the top draft picks around during the preseason and assemble a show about their experiences as they enter the league. I have shot Hey Rookie for four seasons now. It’s a pretty good gig.

This year I was shooting Vikings running back Adrian Peterson. He had a good night - scored his first NFL touchdown - and was happy to tell us all about it on camera. He looks like a real player. I think the Vikings will be a contender this season. Their defense had a great night. I know, I know, it’s only the preseason.

The strangest thing I encountered while shooting Hey Rookie was two years ago in Denver. The Broncos and 49ers had just finished the third game of the preseason and I was standing outside the 9ers locker room with NFL Films soundman Al Feurbach.

We were waiting to interview then rookie quarterback Alex Smith. All of the sudden people started running in and out of the 49ers locker room. There was definitely something very bad happening but none of us knew what it was. We were speculating that maybe someone had collapsed. Boy were we right. About 15 minutes later, an ambulance backed up to the door and out on a stretcher came 23 year old Thomas Herrion, a young offensive tackle who was trying to make the team. He had collapsed as coach Mike Nolan was finishing up his post-game speech to the team.

As they rolled him out of the locker room - in uniform - and loaded him onto the ambulance there were people who were clearly making desperate attempts to save his life. They were giving him CPR and it really didn’t look good. Herrion was pronounced dead at the hospital a short time later and needless to say, we didn’t do the interview with our rookie.

Crazy, sad stuff.