Thank You
If you’re a new visitor to the Rookie Scouting Portfolio, thank you for checking it out. Friday is the time of the week where I post links about a variety of topics. It’s also a time where I thank my readers for checking out my Rookie Scouting Portfolio publication that I make available for download every April 1st – no joke. You can learn more about it here.
I’d also like to encourage you to try FantasyThrowdown.com. It’s 1-on-1, weekly fantasy football, which means you can play daily or play when convenient. You and your opponent chose three weekly match ups to build a draft pool of players to build a starting lineup. You can draft with team defense or IDP; PPR or non-PPR. The whole process can take 15 minutes or you can slow draft throughout the week.
The site is free. All you have to do is register with an email address to get started. You can challenge other players in the lobby, or you can challenge a friend by email.
Views
Steelers need a healthy back. The Bengals don’t trust theirs. The Raiders and Cardinals could use a healthy runner. The Packers are in the market. Don’t even get me started on the Jets. Remember when Cam Newton led college football in touchdowns in 2010?
No you don’t.
Because this guy at Northern Illinois did and I still think he can contribute to an NFL team. There are Colts and Steelers that know I’m speaking the truth.
Just sayin’ . . . perhaps they’re waiting on this prospect below.
Thanks Chad Lemoine for the advanced scouting. I agree with the sentiments of the comment on this YouTube thread about the soundtrack to the highlights. Not cool to match with this budding superstar. Thankfully, the mute button does the trick. Getting a chance to watch this speedster with balance and vision is a fun watch. Watch out Chris Johnson . . .
Football Reads
How are the Bears Targeting Brandon Marshall – NFP writer and former NFL DB Matt Bowen breaks it down.
Midseason Mock Draft – I’m not a mock draft type of guy, but lots of folks are so it gives me a chance to tout Josh Norris and Eric Stoner at Rotoworld. Good guys, good knowledge, and not afraid to give thought-provoking analysis.
The NFL Will Conduct 10 Regional Combines in 2013 – Jacksonville wide receiver Kevin Elliott and Rams kicker Greg “Legatron” Zuerlein got a shot due to this process in 2012.
Non-Football Reads
The Story Behind John Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme’ – When I was 16 years-old I bought my first John Coltrane album, Blue Train. As an aspiring tenor saxophonist this album, and Charles Mingus’ Better Git it in Your Soul were my first taste of blues and gospel-tinged improvisational badassery. Think of Coltrane as the Adrian Peterson of saxophonists – two individuals whose work weaves incredible paths with power, agility, soul, and will. Throw in trumpeter Lee Morgan – whose playing on stage embodies the spectacular flights and versatility of a Percy Harvin on the field – and despite the fact this was 1986 and I was going to concerts to see Van Halen, Journey, George Thorogood, and jamming to the Fresh Party, the first rap program in Atlanta, on V-103 FM every Friday night, the music of jazz was getting a hold of me.
Two years later, a fellow tenor player gave me a tape of A Love Supreme. I wish I could have told you it was love at first listen, but I didn’t get it. I couldn’t even listen to it all the way through. It was too intense. I physically couldn’t handle it.
But great art is sometimes something you have to raise your game to grasp it. It’s not that I had to practice listening to it or that I had to take classes to understand what was going on to get it. The more I lived life, persisted, endured, felt joy and pain, and experienced the dynamics of the tension and release in everything around us, the more I found myself connecting with ‘A Love Supreme.’
If could take only one piece of art, literature, or music with me, this album would be it.
Why We’re Obsessed With Wayne Shorter – John Coltrane once remarked to Shorter that he liked how he ‘scrambled them eggs.’ If you listen to either saxophonist enough, you’ll know what he means. Shorter also has one of the best ballads on record. If you want a true tender moment with that special someone – no I’m not talking about getting laid – put this on, dim the lights, hold that loved one, and listen intently.
First Black Female Chess Master – There would be a lot more if introduced to the game at a young age – trust me.