Patriots’ cameraman has backing

Matthew Estrella couldn’t possibly have imagined a week ago he could soon type his name into a Google search and get more than a million hits.

Estrella is the cameraman in the New England Patriots’ signal-stealing scandal.

“In role reversal, he’s in camera’s eye,” the Boston Globe headline read as reporters staked out the apartment in Fall River, Mass., where Estrella, 26, lives with his wife. Other reporters interviewed his father at the family home in New Bedford, as well as his college instructors at Fitchburg State.

One of them, Professor Charles Roberts, told the Globe that Estrella was a “really nice kid” who “always did what he said he was going to do.”

“I don’t want Matt to end up taking a hit for anybody,” Roberts told the paper. “I’m sure he was doing his job, much as he did when he was here, and he was being a good guy.”

We haven’t heard anyone say the same for Bill Belichick.

Trivia time

How many times has running back Ricky Williams, expected to seek reinstatement to the NFL when he becomes eligible next month, violated the league’s drug policy?

Some reality for your fantasy

If you’re in a fantasy football league but don’t know a sprain from a strain or the difference between probable and questionable on the NFL injury report, there’s a blog for you.

Stephania Bell, a certified physical therapist and injury expert, analyzes actual injuries at ESPN.com to help you decide which players to put in your fake lineups.

Got that?

On the topic of the NBA, Bell provided insightful information on what Greg Oden faces. But on the NFL, she’s often like the rest of us: She has to go by what the team announces.

There are tips for those who want to be in the know, however.

“Here’s a hint,” she wrote. “When the medical staff surrounds the player and everyone holds up towels, they are usually looking at something groin-related.”

Dollars for dogs

The winning bidder in that EBay auction of Michael Vick’s purported talking points for his dogfighting apology was comedian Carol Leifer, a television writer and co-executive producer of the CBS sitcom “Rules of Engagement.”

Leifer paid $10,200 for the note, auctioned by the Humane Society of the United States after an employee found it left on the lectern after Vick’s news conference.

“We are already proud members of the Humane Society of the United States. And when we saw that all the proceeds of this note were going to you guys, we jumped on it,” Leifer said in a Humane Society release.

“Michael Vick ironically never made the most important apology -- the one to the animals themselves. ‘Dogs have suffered’ is the only talking point he left out on that note. So this note is for our 18-month-old son, Bruno. For him to keep over the years and to show him that the mark of a man is not what you achieve as a sports star, but the kindness and compassion that lives in your heart.”

Don’t make it a habit

Some NFL teams are borrowing something from the NHL -- the wearing of the captain’s “C” on players’ jerseys.

It’s a letter that hockey players, by tradition, wear with considerable pride and a sense of duty. The NFL said the move is part of an initiative to “emphasize leadership and the role of team captains.”

As long as the NFL doesn’t emulate hockey’s labor management and television rights negotiating policies, it ought to be OK.

In the bag

We know this will read like an ad for Nike, but wouldn’t you like to know exactly what is in Tiger Woods’ bag?

From Golf World magazine: “Ball: Nike One Platinum. Driver: Nike SasQuatch Tour, 8.5 degrees. 3-wood: Nike SasQuatch2. Irons (2-PW): Nike Forged Blades. Wedges: Nike Pro Combo (56 degrees), Nike SV (60 degrees). Putter: Scotty Cameron by Titleist Tiger.”

Trivia answer

Four.

And finally

Comedian Argus Hamilton on reaction to the Patriots’ stealth video:

“They’ve been doing it for years. It put an immediate end to the lines to get into the women’s room at New England’s home stadium.”

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robyn.norwood@latimes.com