As a freelance video journalist, I have covered two PGA Championships, one U.S. Open, and two LIV Golf tournaments.  I have enjoyed every experience and love the game of golf.  I take no sides among governing bodies and simply side with the game and the people who play, from novices like me to the pros (though I was annoyed when the PGA moved the 2022 Championship away from Trump National Bedminster and completely out of New Jersey, because I lost a week-long gig covering the tourney.  That cost me thousands.  Of course, I made up for that - and then some - covering LIV Golf Bedminster and LIV Golf Boston).

Brooks Koepka - 2019 PGA Champion

So without even a hint of any inside info, here's my take:

For starters, many people covering golf claim that the PGA players lost out by remaining loyal to the PGA, but I believe the opposite is true - the loyalty shown to the PGA by most stars essentially killed LIV Golf.

LIV needed many stars to abandon the PGA to succeed, and other than a handful of stars - most notably, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, and Cam Smith - most of the LIV golfers were simply no longer top-notch PGA golfers or never were.  And that was a major problem for LIV.

Because they had too few stars, LIV had trouble finding sponsors, so they were hemorrhaging money.  Yes, they were funded by the Saudi's seemingly limitless PIF fund, but after losing more than a billion dollars in just over a year, the Saudis clearly saw no reason to continue losing money with no hope of profit, so they negotiated this deal from a position of weakness and did so without their "founder," Greg Norman, a retired golf Hall of Famer who hates the PGA.  So leaving Norman out of the negotiations was necessary, and he'll likely be out of golf completely when the deal is finalized.  

Brooks Koepka at Trump National Bedminster

LIV also landed an absolutely worthless TV deal with the CW network.  The deal
was so bad, that LIV Golf began simulcasting CW coverage on YouTube last month because affiliates weren't picking up the low-rated coverage.

LIV was also hurt because they couldn't get on golf courses that the PGA uses.  Again, having covered LIV Golf Bedminster and Boston, I can tell you that Trump National is a top-notch course.  In fact, I played there two weeks ago in the outstanding PGA Memes Challenge.  But the course that LIV used in Boston - The International - was not on a par with Trump National.  The fairway on the first hole in Boston was so wide that Norman and the parachute team he hires actually landed on the first fairway.  Hell, even novices like myself would have no trouble driving a ball in the fairway from the pros tee box.  And the volunteers at The International, well, I actually recorded one cart driver crashing into another and nearly taking the feet off of one of the LIV competitors, whose fast reflexes saved him from serious injury.  (Watch this video I recorded of the parachute team followed by the golf cart crash)

Dustin Johnson at Trump National

So I don't see this as a PGA loss and a loss for the players who stayed true to the
PGA.  I see this as an absolute win for the PGA and a defeat for LIV.  In fact, again, having covered three majors, I've seen how many of the media are only there to cover Tiger Woods, so I think bringing more cash into the PGA will help sustain prize money when viewership and media coverage inevitably dips after Woods retires.

But as they say, "The devil is in the details," and we've not yet seen the details, so I could be way off.  Still, in the end, I think the PGA comes out of this with a major win, no different than the NBA merger with the ABA, or the NHL merger with the WHA.  The NBA and NHL won and became stronger; and I think the PGA just made themselves a lot stronger.

* All photos taken by the author.

The closing of Churchill Downs for the Summer Season, and the Abuse of Athletes in General

2022 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs

Yesterday, my wife told me that Churchill Downs has closed for the summer pending investigation into the recent deaths of a number of horses during or after races.  She said that they were looking at everything, including the track itself.  I have no inside info, but having worked in sports for 30 years and studied the culture of sports, I speculated that horses were being driven too hard and possibly drugged.  She questioned the logic of my answer, suggesting that people wouldn’t invest hundreds of thousands – even millions – into horses and risk killing them and losing that investment.

But you see, the big payoff is why people in sports have risked health, limb, and life to win for decades. 

In 1973, Miami Dolphins head coach Don Shula, on the heels of the "Perfect Season" in which Shula’s Dolphins went undefeated en route to the Super Bowl VII Championship, published his memoir, entitled "The Winning Edge."  Shula spoke about his desire to have his teams find an edge in every game against every opponent, within the rules of the game, of course.  But sometimes, I have observed, “within the rules of the game” meant looking the other way.  For example, Dolphins trainer Bob Lundy (who was fired in 1992), often injected players with pain-killing drug cocktails to get them back on the field while injured.  Careers were shortened as players competed with injuries.  Anything to get the player on the field to win that game on that day, future be damned.

Lundy and Shula certainly weren’t alone.  Sports history is filled with players, coaches, trainers and owners who have put health and welfare on the line in order to win now.  Los Angeles Raiders 1980s stars and notorious “bad boys” Lyle Alzado and John Matuszak admitted to taking copious amounts of steroids during their careers.  Alzado began using as early as 1969 and abused them throughout his 15 year career.  When he died from a brain tumor at the age of 43, he had claimed that steroids played a role in his declining health and ultimate demise.  Matuszak died at the age of 38 with steroid-induced cardiomyopathy as a contributing factor.

Also in the 1980s, the Washington Redskins won multiple championships after assembling the largest offensive line ever seen on a football field to that point.  Known as “The Hogs,” the Redskins offensive line mauled opposing defenses and set the standard that’s still in use today, leading to massive weight gain as the average size of offensive linemen ballooned from about 260 in 1980 to over 300 pounds in just over a decade.

The late Reggie Roby

By the late 1980s, as a Miami Dolphins fan, I had begun traveling to see the team play road games in the northeast and making annual trips to Miami for spring minicamp and an autumn home game.  By 1989, I had befriended a few team staff members and filled in as a videographer at the 1990 mini-camp, recording morning and afternoon practices with the team’s video director as his assistant had to miss mini-camp for a family wedding.  I was invited to lunch between practices during the 4-day mini-camp and was stunned at the amount of food that was consumed by offensive and defensive lineman – 4,000 to 5,000 calorie meals just for lunch.

By 1992, I had gotten to know some of the players.  Twenty-five years later, the following players from that 1992 team were deceased (their weight listed is their playing weight):

• Harry Galbreath, age 45, 285 lbs.
• David Griggs, age 28, 245 lbs.
• Chuck Klingbeil, age 52, 288 lbs.
• Shawn Lee, age 44, 300 lbs.
• Alfred Oglesby, age 42, 290 lbs.
• Reggie Roby, age 43, 243 lbs.
• TJ Turner, age 46, 276 lbs.
• Jarvis Williams, age 45, 200 lbs.

Griggs died in a car accident.  But the remainder of the players died from heart attacks.  Other than Jarvis Williams, who was a 200 lb. defensive back, the rest of the players were well above the average weight for men of their height.  Sure, in their 20s, these guys were tremendous athletes in top physical condition, but anyone choosing to carry that weight years after their playing careers end are clearly putting themselves at tremendous risk for cardiac problems.  (That’s why I cringe when I see Gen Z celebrate the obese musical artist Lizzo for “body positivity.”  Hogwash.  She’s a ticking timebomb, but I digress).

I recall cringing every time former NFL star Tony Siragusa appeared on television in his role as a commentator and made jokes about his appetite and weight.  Siragusa played at 340 pounds and refused to lose weight when he retired.  On television, he was the happy-go-lucky, jovial fat guy.  Then he was dead at age 55.

The late Shawn Lee

If a coach told a 240-pound college freshman who plays on the line that if he
bulked up, he could make it to the NFL, but that he might not live to 50, I doubt anyone would take their coach up on that offer.  But I don’t think young men understand the risks of carrying that weight into their 40s.  And I’d be willing to bet that neither the National Football League nor the players union has a mandatory weight loss and management program for retirees.  Maybe they should.

Circling back to America’s greatest race track, Churchill Downs, the rewards for pushing horses is no different than the rewards for pushing pro athletes.  Horses that win earn hundreds of thousands in prize money for their owners and they charge tremendous stud fees when they retire.  Trainers that win become more in-demand and their fees increase.  Trainers and owners that win gain glory.  The more races a jockey wins, the more in demand he becomes as well.  Everyone wants to gain that “winning edge,” so many try to win at all costs, future be damned.  Even in the lower levels of minor league hockey, I had a friend years ago tell me that his team kept of bowls of Sudafed in locker rooms so players can get a “bump” before the game and between periods.  And we all know players still use steroids and supplements, thinking they can get away with it.

So, should we be surprised that a number of horses died at the most popular track in America, during the biggest racing week in the world, in the state where the most thoroughbred are raised?  No.  It should be investigated.  But what really makes me shake my head is why there is such a huge focus on horses while former human athletes continue to die in their 40s and 50s, far too prematurely.

Super Bowl LVII Recap

Super Bowl LVII is in the books and the game ended in a thriller (meaning almost no one played defense), with the Chiefs besting the Eagles 38-35.  

Past Super Bowls kicked-off around 6:30pm but last night's game didn't get underway until 6:45 simply because the pre-game show is just too darned long.  Are the hype videos even necessary?  People just want to see the game get underway, we don't need to delay kickoff to hype up the most hyped game of the season.  And with all the pre-game recognitions, there seemed to be more people on the field from 6pm to 6:45 than there were on both teams combined.  Was it all necessary?  No.  No one cares.  Start the game!  Do the recognitions at the NFL Awards show.  

The game finally got underway with both teams playing well offensively despite the field conditions that were inexplicably slippery.  The broadcasters (the outstanding Kevin Burkhardt was such a refreshing change from Fox's former #1 broadcaster, Joe Buck) said that the field was slippery due to paint, but it appeared that players were also slipping in unpainted areas.  Since the Arizona Cardinals last home game of the 2022 season was on Christmas Day, a full 7 weeks ago, you'd think the playing field would be absolutely perfect.

The game was good and competitive, though the league's constant rules issues regarding the definition of what constitutes a completed pass came to the fore.  We had an Eagles receiver catch a pass in the middle of the field, get two feet down, and begin to turn upfield when a Chiefs defender made the tackle and forced a fumble that the Chiefs returned for a touchdown.  Upon further review, the replay officials decided that despite two feet down and the beginning of a turn, the receiver did not possess the football long enough for the catch to be considered a catch.

Contrast that with a catch made moments later by the Eagles tight end on the same drive, in which he was headed out of bounds as the pass was thrown his way.  He bobbled the ball but the officials ruled the play a catch.  The Chiefs head coach challenged the call because of the bobble, but the replay official ruled that because the tight end got his hands back on the ball a split second before the tight end's foot left the ground and went out of bounds.  So we see that a split second is OK on passes to the sideline, but not on passes in the middle of the field.

But wait...  there's more...  Earlier in the game, a receiver (and I can't even remember which team he played for) caught a pass near the sideline, got two feet down with full possession of the ball as he began to fall out of bounds.  He then had a knee hit the ground out of bounds.  Play over, right?  No, because the rules require a receiver to maintain possession of the ball all the way to the ground and the ball on this play touched the ground after the receiver fell, even though it appeared that he maintained possession all the way down.  So, a split second is OK at the sideline if the receiver remains on his feet, but not if the receiver gets two feet down in bounds and a knee down out of bounds before completely hitting the ground.  Are you confused yet?

I think this tweet by Super 70s Sports sums all these rules and reviews best, and if you go to the tweet, you'll see that an overwhelming majority are in agreement - just let them play!

The halftime show was...  Meh.  As the kids say these days, it was "mid."  The show started impressively with a platforms rigged to the stadium roof and Rhianna and dancers flying around.  After the first 3 minutes, you wondered, "What's next?"  But nothing was next.  That was it.  The show was actually quite boring.  There were no guest appearances for which the Super Bowl halftime show had become known.  And there were times when you heard Rhianna sing while the microphone was at her side, so the halftime show had the feel of the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, where everyone lip-syncs.  Honestly, it was probably the most disappointing halftime show I'd ever seen.  But kudos to the stage crew and riggers, who never get credit for what they do.  Setting all that staging up in 9 minutes is a lot of work, which is why it's rehearsed for weeks before Super Bowl Sunday.

Once the game ended, I found it utterly ridiculous that censors were cutting the audio during interviews because players in the background were swearing because the censors had no problem showing Rhianna run her finger between her legs and then sniff it when the world knows lots of kids are watching, but heaven-forbid a player in the background swear at 10:30 at night.  Silly, really.

But in all, it was a terrific game that went back and forth with Patrick Mahomes showing why he is the best quarterback and, arguably, the most valuable player in the NFL today.

Why Do Democrats Hate the Workers of America?

A decent percentage of my income is derived from freelance video production gigs at sports events.  As such, I've worked at a Super Bowl, a few PGA Championships, the U.S. Open (tennis and golf), the NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals, and thousands of other sports events as a part of a video production crew or as a video journalist.  I've thoroughly enjoyed my career in media production even though it has often taken me away from my family.

Last month I was booked to cover the LIV Golf Invitational at Trump National in Bedminster, New Jersey.  Trump National is a top-notch golf course that had originally been booked to host this year's PGA Championship - an event that would have brought hundreds of millions in (taxable) revenue for New Jersey businesses as well as millions in taxable income for those who worked the event.  I was slated to cover all seven days of the PGA Championship.  The PGA, however, chose to move the event out of state, costing the state millions, costing businesses tens of millions, and costing people like myself thousands.

When the PGA abandoned New Jersey, our state's leaders - almost all Democrats - had nothing to say about it.  Deep down, they were probably happy to spite former president Donald Trump.  The fact that many New Jersey workers like myself, on the heels of losing 18 months worth of freelance income to the pandemic, were out thousands due to the relocation of the PGA Championship did not matter to our democrat politicians.  The only thing that mattered was a Trump golf course losing a prestigious event.

This is beyond sad.  In their zeal to spite one man, hundreds - even thousands - suffered, and Democrats didn't give a damn about us.

President Trump Signs autographs

Thankfully, I made up some of the lost income covering the LIV Golf Invitational and the Friday morning protest of the event a few miles away.  The course was beautiful.  The former president was a great host, signing autographs and posing for pictures with fans.  He was accommodating to the media as well, giving me and another videographer a few minutes of his time to answer a few questions.

Personally, it was great to get back to covering a golf tournament for the first time since 2019 and to earn some money.  Unfortunately Democrats are out to spite Trump again even though it will mean loss of wages for myself and hundreds of others who made money last month at LIV Golf.  Petty Democrat state senators Dick Codey and Andrew Zwicker have decided to introduce legislation to ban any sports events in New Jersey that are backed by "a sovereign wealth fund," meaning the Saudis, who back LIV Golf.  This legislation is aimed at Trump National Bedminster because I am quite sure Saudi-owned thoroughbreds will still be racing at the Meadowlands and Monmouth Park.  

Of course, I don't recall hearing Codey or Zwicker complaining about Joe Biden's flight to Saudi Arabia days before the LIV Golf Invitational to beg the Saudis for more oil.  They don't mind spending our money over there for oil.  But then, New Jersey Democrats mind being seen as hypocrites as little as they mind cutting the wages of hard-working New Jersey citizens by limiting their ability to work.

Celebrating 80, Paul McCartney in the 21st Century

Paul McCartney has turned 80 years old.  Approximately half of the population in the developed world never reach 80, so getting there is an accomplishment, but what Paul McCartney has done this century, leading up to 80, is a tremendous accomplishment.  Consider, in this century, beginning when he was already 57 years-old, McCartney released:

- Six rock/pop albums, on which he played most of the instruments and wrote or, in few cases, co-wrote all of the songs:

• Driving Rain (2001)
• Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (2005)
• Memory Almost Full (2007)
• New (2013)
• Egypt Station (2018)
• III (2020)

- Two electronic albums:

• Twin Freaks (2005), with producer The Freelance Hellraiser
• Electric Arguments (2008), with producer Youth, released as “Firemen”

- One standards album:

• Kisses On the Bottom (2012)

- Three classical albums:

• Liverpool Sound Collage (2000)
• Ecce Cor Meum (2006)
• Ocean’s Kingdom (2011)

- Five live albums:

• Back in the US (2002) with Concert DVD
• Back in the World Live (2003)
• Live in Los Angeles (2007)
• Good Evening New York City (2009) with Concert DVD
• iTunes Live from Capitol Studios (2012) with Concert DVD

- Two Retrospective albums with DVDs:

• Wingspan (2001)
• The McCartney Years (2007)

In all, 12 LPs in 22 years of original recordings plus 5 live LPs and two compilations.  On top of that, he has been involved remasters and new releases from The Beatles including:

• Let It Be... Naked (2003)
• Love (2006)
• On Air: Live At the BBC, Vol. 2 (2013)
• Live At the Hollywood Bowl (2016)
• Get Back (2022)

And then there are vocal performances McCartney did on recordings with other artists (and they’re all good songs, check them out on-line!), such as:

• George Michael – “Heal the Pain,” 2006
• Tony Bennett – “The Very Thought of You,” 2006
• George Benson & Al Jarreau – “Givin’ It Up,” 2006
• Nitin Sawhney – “My Soul,” 2009
• Ringo Starr – “Walk With You,” 2010
• Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers – “Best Love,” 2011
• The Bloody Beatroots – “Out of Sight,” 2013
• Eric Clapton – “All of Me,” 2013
• Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic & Pat Smear – “Cut Me Some Slack,” 2013
• Kanye West – "FourFiveSeconds" and "Only One" 2015
• Hollywood Vampires – "Come and Get It" 2015
• Ringo Starr - "We're On the Road Again" 2017

McCartney also performed on five tribute/film soundtrack albums:

• “Vanilla Sky,” 2001, from the soundtrack to the film Vanilla Sky
• “(I'm Partial to Your) Abracadabra,” 2001, tribute album honoring Ian Dury
• “I Want to Walk You Home,” 2007, tribute album honoring Fats Domino
• “Whole Life,” 2007, tribute album honoring Nelson Mandela, featuring Dave Stewart
• “(I Want To) Come Home,” 2009, from the soundtrack to the film Everybody’s Fine
• “It’s So Easy,” 2011, tribute album honoring Buddy Holly

In addition, McCartney has conducted 14 concert tours as well as performing at the 9/11 concert, the 12-12-12 concert for Hurricane Sandy relief, the 2012 Olympics, Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005 and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in
2012, all of which required much organizing and rehearsal. 

Simply put, at a time in his life when most artists are resigned to nostalgia package tours and retirement, Paul McCartney in his 60s and 70s was more productive than almost any other artist on the planet (U2, for example, released just 5 studio albums and 2 live albums in the same span).  

At 80, Paul McCartney clearly has a lot less time in front of him than behind, but enjoy him now because we are not at all likely to see another singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and perform like him in our lifetime.

A Hundred Years of Socialism In America

Since the 1920s, about a century now, socialists and communists have been trying to bring socialism to America. A group that traveled to Moscow in 1924 and returned with glowing reviews of socialism infiltrated FDR's cabinet and produced policies that made the Great Depression last far longer than it should have. Why? Because a desperate population will revolt, and capitalism created the first middle class in world history, making people far to happy and comfortable. But then WWII interfered.

Of course, FDR was the future model for the Democrat party - someone who leaned socialist, loved power, threatened the Supreme Court, created unconstitutional socialist programs and refused to cede power.

FDR passed before WWII ended, but the socialists did not stop. They've been in it for the long haul. They began to infiltrate Hollywood, then the media, then our schools. They've been teaching revisionist history bunk. They've been feeding us lies. They've decimated all things that produce comfort, wealth and good mental health, like family structure and capitalism. They've enacted social programs to create dependency - LBJ admitted this.

By the 90s, the goal was 8 years of Bill Clinton, 8 years of Al Gore, and 8 years of Hillary Clinton, and in 24 years, America as we know it would be gone. But then Bush won in 2000 and despite desperate attempts to cheat and overturn the election, Bush was inaugurated. The 9/11 attacks brought the nation together and flag-waving patriotism was back, much to the disdain of the left.

So Democrats came up with a new plan to bring about socialism - 8 years of Obama and 8 years of Hillary. Obama started the ball rolling, too - a healthcare bill that Congress "had to pass to see what was in it." An explosion of school violence and street violence that has eliminated the Giuliani-led clean-up of urban areas in the 90s. Racial division. "Climate change." Riots.

But the people saw through this and, despite cheating by Democrats and Hillary Clinton, elected Donald Trump as president. Trump got the economy going, began to bring manufacturing back, got Europe to pay more of their "fair share" of our defending their borders, defended our own borders, got ALL Americans a tax cut, putting more money in our pockets and allowing us to live more comfortably, and got us out of the Paris Accord whose entire goal was to redistribute American wealth.

So now Democrats really had to cheat. And they did. Somehow Joe Biden, who campaigned from his basement, received millions more votes than even Obama despite a complete lack of voter enthusiasm for him. Democrats used ballot harvesting to install an absolute puppet in the White House - two of them actually, because the healthy Kamala Harris is actually less intelligent and competent than the senile groper, Biden. The results have been completely predictable. Food shortages for the first time in my lifetime, inflation running rampant, an anemic economy, shrinking retirement accounts - all done to make us poor and less comfortable. Essentially, it's like fattening a turkey before Thanksgiving. Democrats are spreading hatred, poverty, and desperation in an attempt to bring about the socialism they've been trying to bring here for a century.

This November we can save our free lives. Let's not screw this up, America.

My 10 Most Memorable Sports Event Experiences

 I have been very fortunate to have a long and fulfilling career in sports video production in the largest market in America – the New York market.  As such, we’ve hosted a great number of major events in the area before and during my career, giving me opportunities I would never have had if I lived in, say, Tulsa, Oklahoma.  I have also traveled to a few events outside of the area as a fan.  What follows are the top 10 memorable events I have attended either as a fan or as a worker:

10.  1990 AFC Wild Card Game, Miami vs. Kansas City – I had been a Miami Dolphins fan my whole life, and began going to see games in the northeast and Miami with a college buddy (and lifelong friend) in the late 1980s.  The team was not very good, aside from Dan Marino, Mark Clayton and Mark Duper; they could not run the ball nor play defense.  In 1990, Don Shula finally began putting together a good team, and I followed them all year long, attending the NFL Draft for the first time as Miami drafted the left side of their offensive line (Richmond Webb and Keith Sims) and traded for cornerback Tim McKyer.  Two weeks later I was in South Florida to shoot minicamp practices with my friend Dave Hack, who was the Dolphins’ Director of Video, because his assistant had to be out of town to attend a family wedding.  To say this experience, shooting practices for a pro team, was a game-changer for me is an understatement; it was then that I realized I had to have a career in sports, no matter what.  That became my goal.  During the 1990 season, I attended a pre-season game in Philadelphia and the season opener in New England as well as games in Buffalo, twice in New Jersey (Jets and Giants), and Washington, making friends with some of the players, taking photos from all over various stadiums, including from the sideline.  I wasn’t wealthy, but knowing Dave meant media passes rather than buying tickets to attend games.  Finally, the Dolphins finished the season 12-4 and made the playoffs, hosting the Kansas City Chiefs at Joe Robbie Stadium.  Because my Dad worked for American Airlines, I flew down for the game and got to cheer the Fins on to a tremendous comeback victory with Dan Marino driving the team for two touchdowns and a victory after entering the 4^th quarter with a 16-3 deficit.  It was so great to finally see the team in a playoff game – and to win – in their home stadium.  That season set me on a course to work in sports, and I’ve succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.  I was in Buffalo the following weekend to see Miami fall 44-34 during a blizzard so strong that no defender could maintain footing, which was why the score was so high, but that didn’t matter after the Chiefs game.  I knew what I wanted to with my life, and I went out and did it.

9.  Game 4, 2002 NBA Finals, New Jersey vs. Los Angeles Lakers – I’m not much of an NBA fan, but I did get to work on the videoboard crew at the 

Meadowlands Arena for the 2002 NBA Finals, and what made Game 4 most memorable was seeing the Lakers hoist the NBA Championship Trophy (ugly, as it may be – it looks like a ball teetering on the rim of a garbage can) after completing a 4-game sweep of the Nets.  It’s not often you get to see team win it all, but I did on that night.  I remember Shaquille O’Neal absolutely dominating the Nets for the entire series, averaging over 36 points and 12 rebounds per game because the Nets simply had no answer to Shaq.  I still have one of the façade banners from the arena somewhere in my garage.  The following season the Nets made it back to the Finals and fared better, but lost to San Antonio in six games with the decisive game in Texas.

8.  2021 Army Navy Game – When I was laid-off, “RIF’d,” let -go, fired, whatever you want to call it, in 2010 from my job at the Meadowlands Sports Complex because Giants Stadium had closed and the arena’s last sports tenant, the New Jersey Nets, announced they were moving to Newark’s Prudential Center for two seasons before moving to Brooklyn, I began my freelance career in earnest.  One of the first freelance gigs I scored was working as a cameraman for Army football games.  I was the end zone camera operator for a few years, then their replay operator for a few years before settling in as their wireless sideline cameraman, which may be the best regular job I have ever had because it was so much fun.  Unfortunately, my client lost the Army gig after the 2019 season, but I had a tremendous decade-long run at West Point.  Thus, in early 2021, I asked my contacts at MetLife Stadium if I could direct the videoboard show at the Army Navy 

game, to be held in December.  Given my history of directing events at the stadium and my history with Army football, I was granted my request.  I worked the 2002 game at Giants Stadium, and while that was a great experience, I did not have the knowledge and respect for the military academies that I’d gained through working Army football in the 2010s, so the 2021 game meant far more to me than the 2002 game.  I remember giving a pep talk before the production meeting with the crew, something I had never done before, to emphasize the importance of the game, how some of the men and women who would be on that field either for the academies pre-game march-on or in the game itself would leave after graduation to serve our country and come home in a casket, and that the people they would focus their camera lenses on were not mere college kids, but soldiers and sailors.  I wanted them to see the faces in their lenses and realize what this game was about, and many told me that was the best pre-game speech they’d ever heard.  But we have a great crew at the stadium anyway, so I knew they’d deliver and they did, in a nearly perfectly executed show, from pre-game to post-game.  It was one of the most perfect shows I’ve ever been associated with, and the Army Navy show is a really long show, with crew in position for 3 hours before the game even starts.  I don’t know if or when the game will return to New Jersey, but I am hoping to get on the crew for this year’s game in Philadelphia.

7.  1994 World Cup Games – The World Cup is obviously one of the biggest sports events in the world, so when the United States was named host to the 1994 World Cup, I had hoped to score tickets to a game…. To no avail, at least not through the FIFA lottery system.  Giants Stadium, being the only soccer-sized stadium in the New York market, hosted numerous games, so I decided I’d try to scalp tickets at the venue, which I had done successfully in the past, never paying more than face value for numerous concerts that I’d attended.  Problem was, they wouldn’t even let drivers into the parking lot without tickets.  So I parked in a warehouse parking lot in Moonachie and walked a mile to the stadium where my beloved Italian squad (my mother’s Sicilian) took on Norway.  I scored a $50 ticket for just $30 because there 

were no fans in the parking lot looking for tickets and scalpers took a beating.  It was a great time, with the Italian crowd singing and cheering the Azzurri on to a 1-0 victory.  The German team advanced to the quarterfinals in what was expected to be an easy game against Bulgaria.  I was dating a woman from Ireland at the time and when I told her I had gotten myself into the Italian game, she begged me to take her to the quarterfinal; she being a soccer fanatic as a European.  My father’s German heritage meant that I rooted for Germany when they weren’t playing Italy, so I didn’t need convincing to execute my park-and-walk scheme one more time.  Like the Italian game, the parking lot was one giant party, with a mostly German crowd downing pints and eating German food.  We easily scored tickets just below face value and as soon as we got into the stadium, my date made her way to a pay phone to call her family in Ireland screaming with joy that she was attending a World Cup game.  That call must have cost a fortune, back then.  And that was the first time I began to realize just how much soccer meant to Europeans.  That game made her summer, though I went home quite disappointed with Germany falling 2-1 loss to underdog Bulgaria after opening the game’s scoring.

6.  2000 NFC Championship Game, Giants vs. Minnesota – the 2000 Giants were not expected to be a good team, but after a 3-2 start, they went on a tear, winning 9 of their next 11 games en route to a 12-4 record and the NFC East Division title.  Still, the media mocked them, calling them the worst division champ in the NFL.  After winning the divisional round, once again, they were mocked as the worst team to make it to a conference championship game.  That game was held at Giants Stadium, where I sat in the producer’s chair and served as music coordinator/DJ for Giants home games.  It was a really fun job, playing tunes, getting the fans into the game, coordinating TV timeout activities, and cueing legendary PA Announcer Bob Sheppard, who was one of the finest gentlemen with whom I have ever worked.  The Giants were hosting the Minnesota Vikings and were a home underdog because the Vikings had one of the most high-powered offenses in the NFL with Duante Culpepper, Randy Moss, and Chris Carter lighting up 

scoreboards all season long.  But Giants quarterback Kerry Collins played the best game of his career and the Giants defense manhandled the vaunted Viking offense.  The score was 35-0 Giants at halftime, which turned the second half into a party every time I got to play music during a TV timeout.  I remember playing “We’re Having a Party” by local favorite Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes at the two-minute warning and having 78,000 fans singing along.  But the best experience that day, for me, was in the postgame.  The Giants had won the game 41-0 and Bob Sheppard left at that two-minute warning to beat traffic out of the parking lot.  After the game, an NFL official brough up a page of copy for the PA Announcer to read, and since we no longer had a PA Announcer, I became the PA Announcer.  Telling fans that they could pick-up championship merchandise for, “your 2000 NFC Champion New York Giants” elicited a massive cheer; what a rush!  The fans hung on my every word when I told them to turn their attention to the stage where “NFL on Fox host Terry Bradshaw will now present the George Halas Trophy to your 2000 NFC Champion New York Giants.”  That announcement brought the house down the way Paul McCartney does when he ends Live and Let Die with a pyrotechnic fusillade.  It was so damned awesome.  I’ve never experienced anything like that before or since.

5.  The 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games – Long before meeting my wife, Susan, she and her law school roommates bought tickets to attend the Atlanta games, trying to score tickets to premiere events but ultimately receiving tickets for badminton, baseball, volleyball and team handball.  By 1996, Susan and I were engaged and her friends had lost interest, so the two of us went and had a ball.  Fortunately, we got to visit Centennial Park (so named because this was the 100^th anniversary of the first modern Olympics) before it was bombed and closed.  Going to the park was a fun experience in and of itself, meeting people from all around the world and trading pins.  Oh, and scalping tickets.  I managed to deal our extra tickets while also dealing some of the tickets for events we were going to attend, wheeling and dealing and working my way up to those coveted medal-round gymnastics tickets;

yup, I scored!  We did enjoy team handball and sat with the girlfriends of two of the Team USA players, who were super nice and explained the game to us to an understandable level.  Fortunately, we had left the park a few hours before the bombing and witnessed neither the carnage nor the panic that ensued when the park was evacuated.  I had always wanted to work an Olympics and still have not done so, but in truth, attending was better because I got experience multiple events in multiple venues while hanging out and partying instead of working in one venue for two weeks.

4.  2019 PGA Championship – I serve as a freelance video news journalist for a company based in London, and they send me to championship-level events and press conferences.  They sent me to my first golf tournament, the 2016 PGA Championship in nearby Springfield, NJ at the Baltusrol Golf Club.  It was a great time, covering the tournament for the entire week, but I was new to covering golf and spent the week learning as I went.  They next sent me to cover the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnicock Hills Golf Club in the Hamptons, which was equally memorable to my 2016 PGA Championship experience.  But when I was assigned to the 2019 Championship at Bethpage Black, I was now a multiple-major veteran.  But what really made that experience better than my previous major tourney experiences was that I received a photgrapher’s lanyard and was permitted to work “inside the ropes” to cover the tournament.  Though I couldn’t shoot video on competition days because television had exclusive video rights on the course, I could take pictures.  Further, a vendor I know at Sony was on-site loaning camera gear and gave me a camera that shoots great photos and video.  As a result, I did my usual work, getting hours of footage on the three practice 

days for my client as well as post-round interviews with dozens of golfers through the competition, I also managed to shoot some 1,600 photos on the course over the 4 days that I had the camera.  What’s more, Brooks Koepka, one of my favorite golfers, won the Championship, his fourth major in two years (he won the Open a year prior at Shinnicock) in dominating fashion and some of the other golfers gave great quotes about him.  It was a really great week that left me looking forward to the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot and the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump National.  Unfortunately for me, the pandemic meant no media at Winged Foot and the PGA’s decision to go woke moved the PGA Championship away from Trump National to somewhere in the Midwest.  Missing those two majors makes me appreciate the week I spent at Bethpage even more.

3.  Super Bowl XLVIII – Yes, the game itself was terrible, with Seattle destroying Denver by a score of…  well, I don’t even remember.  I remember the Broncos were down 3 touchdowns at halftime but thinking that with Peyton Manning, the Broncos could still come back; then Percy Harvin took the second half kickoff and ran it back for an 87 yard touchdown.  How do I remember that detail of the game?  I was a cameraman for the MetLife Stadium videoboard show; the 50-yard line game camera operator, in fact, and that kick return was the hardest play to cover, panning to my right to follow the kick, the following Harvin from the east end zone to the west 

end zone, a good 120 degree pan.  I had always wanted to attend a Super Bowl, going back to when I was a kid watching those championship Miami Dolphins teams win back-to-back, but never made it.  Tickets were too expensive.  But working the game was incredible.  We were there the Thursday before the Super Bowl to build and test cameras, then Friday for rehearsals, including two fly-overs and three halftime rehearsals from the foot of the stage – we were told that anyone who had a cell phone out would be fired immediately because they didn’t want any footage out before the Bruno Mars/Red Hot Chili Peppers performance on Sunday.  On Super Bowl Sunday, our call time was 9am, and after firing up cameras again and a long production meeting, we had 5 hours to walk around and take everything in, which we all did.  To date, Super Bowl XLVIII remains the only time I ever ran camera at an NFL game.

2.  1995 Stanley Cup Finals, Game 4, New Jersey vs. Detroit – I was working for the New Jersey Devils at the time as a freelance video editor, creating content for the video board show all season long.  The Devils had made it to the Stanley Cup Finals one season after losing the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals to the New York Rangers in heartbreaking fashion in overtime in Game 7 (and I was there, at the game, crushed because I wouldn’t be working the Stanley Cup Finals).  In 1995, the Devils swept the Detroit Red Wings, four games to none, winning the clinching game four by a score of 5-2, so the

game’s outcome was never in doubt after the second period and the third period was one long, loud party.  The Devils became the state’s first major sports champion and while the Devils went back and won two more championships in 2000 and 2003, nothing beats the first time.  After the game the team hosted a party through the overnight and we all got to hoist the Stanley Cup.  I met my wife at the Stanley Cup parade a few days later.  It was my first time experiencing a championship game, and it wouldn’t be the last.

1.  2022 Kentucky Derby – Susan and I were married on Derby Day in 1997; Silver Charm won the race and is still alive today, retired at Old Friends Equine Facility in Kentucky.  Thus, for our 25^th Anniversary, I decided to take

Susan to the 2022 Kentucky Derby earlier this month.  It was just a phenomenal experience.  We attended the Kentucky Oaks the day prior, so we spent two days at America’s most iconic track, chatting with people in our trackside courtyard section on the rail and at the Galt House hotel’s Conservatory bar.  And what a Derby to attend, with longshot Rich Strike winning at 80-1 odds in front of a crowd of 147,294.  The food offerings were delicious and the bourbon was flowing as all food and beverages were included in the price of the admission.  It was a phenomenal time we hope to repeat in 2024 at the 150^th running of the Derby.  Hope to see you there!

Yes, I have been very fortunate in my career, which is why I really enjoy sharing my experiences with sport management students at Rutgers University, where I teach part time.  I genuinely hope that my students get where they want to go in their sports careers and exceed my experiences, and some are well on their way.  It took me decades to get to my first Super Bowl and golf grand slam events, but I’ve had students who have worked their first Super Bowl, PGA Championship and Hall of Fame induction ceremonies before they’ve graduated!  They are getting tremendous experience and building a resume before earning their degree, and that’s how college should prepare students for their futures.  But I’m not done yet.  I still hope to do some more championship-level events, including the World Series, which is the one event that has eluded me so far.

Routine Sadness Does NOT Require a Therapist

A few weeks ago, mid to late-April, it had been unseasonably cold, cloudy, and windy for a few days.  This is the time of year in New Jersey when everyone looks forward to spring and warm weather, but that weather seemed to disappear for days.

On the way to work one of those days, I had been listening to the "Seriously Sinatra" channel on my SiriusXM radio on the way to work when Sinatra's rendition of A Very Good Year came on the radio.  I immediately flashed back about twenty years ago when I was visiting my 80-something year-old grandmother who had been overcome by dementia and was, as we discovered, months from the end of her life.  During that visit, that same Sinatra song was playing on the radio in her kitchen, which was tuned to a standards station. When the song changed to the melancholy tone prior the final verse and Sinatra sang about the "autumn of the years," the aging of the song's protagonist reflecting on his life, my grandmother asked, "When are you going to settle down and get married?"  I couldn't tell her that I had married years ago and that she had met my wife and her great-grandchildren many times, that would've confused the hell out of her so there was no point in going there.

From that moment on, I cannot hear A Very Good Year without thinking of that moment with my grandmother and feeling melancholy.  And that's fine.  Occasional sadness is natural and healthy and makes you experience and appreciate happy times more intensely.

Thus, when I read the graphic to the left which had been posted by a teacher's account on LinkedIn, I winced.  How did we get to the point where kids, teens, and college students are led to believe that one needs "a counselor or therapist when feeling sad?"  Don't get me wrong, if someone has bouts of depression, they should absolutely be referred to counseling, but routine sadness?  There is absolutely no need for therapy or counseling for sadness and we should not overwhelm therapist's offices with visits from people whose presence there may be preventing people who really need therapy from getting it in a timely manner.

If you've spent any time recently visiting numerous campuses on college visits with high school students, you've probably noticed an abundance of signs posted on campus walls sending a similar message - that students need help from counselors.  It's as if they're trying to convince students that they're all depressed and suicidal.

This was certainly not the case when I was a college student decades ago.  So it came as no surprise to me that suicide rates among those under the age of 25 have spiked recently.  In fact, according to a 2016 report, the Centers for Disease Control, suicide rates are up more than 30% in more than half of America's states since 1999 and in 54% of suicides, the victim was not known to have had mental health problems.  Those rates have only continued to rise due to the isolation of the pandemic.  One must wonder, is society conditioning acceptance of suicide as routine and convincing young Americans that natural, occasional sadness is a condition that must be treated?

Imagine going through life thinking that every time you experience routine sadness you are in need of treatment.  Clearly, with suicide rates skyrocketing, it's time for America to take a look at the messaging around sadness and reconsider what is labelled as a situation in need of treatment and what is a situation that is routine and normal and passes sometimes in minutes, sometimes in hours.  The health of young America is truly at stake.