Central Park North; Creepy Clowns in Deserted Town; Matt Bowen, Andrew Healey, Great Punt Returns; Color Blind or Color Brave, and more…

What is Reads Listens Views?

If you’re new to the Rookie Scouting Portfolio blog, welcome.  I post links on Fridays to content I’m saving for later consumption or pieces that I found compelling. You may not like everything listed here, but you’re bound to like something.

Views-Color Blind or Color Brave

I interviewed the Chief Diversity Officer of AT&T last week. AT&T has a sterling track record of diversity and inclusion and I know she would approve of this TED Talk. Well worth your 14 minutes if you’re into doing the smart thing. Studies show that diverse teams – race, culture, gender, orientation, background, and educational experience – out-perform homogeneous teams.

Best Punt Returns Ever in College Football

Download the 2014 Rookie Scouting Portfolio + Post-Draft Update!

Friday’s are also my chance to thank you for reading my work, encourage you to follow the RSP blog, and download the Rookie Scouting Portfolio publication.

The 2014 Rookie Scouting Portfolio Post-Draft Add-On is ready for download.  If you’re in a dynasty league, the combination of the 2014 RSP and the RSP Post-Draft will have you prepared for this year and beyond. Want details? Need details? I have ’em right here:

• 84 pages
• How to use the RSP and RSP-Post Draft together
• Overrated/Underrated
• Good/Bad post-draft fits
• UDFAs to watch
• Long-term dynasty waiver wire gems
• Strategic overview of 2014 rookie drafts
• Tiered Value Chart Cheat Sheet across all positions
• Post-Draft rankings analysis and commentary–including notes about impending contracts years of competition on the depth charts
• Average Draft Position (ADP) Data of 19 dynasty drafts
• RSP Ranking-to-ADP Value Data
• Raw Data Worksheets to continue calculating additional ADP data for future drafts

Hell, take a video tour of the 2013 post-draft to see what I mean:

Seriously, this analysis is worth the price of the 2014 RSP package alone, but you get this as a part of your purchase with the 2014 RSP. Remember 10 percent of each sale is donated to Darkness to Light to prevent sexual abuse in communities across the United States. While that alone should get you to download the RSP package, do it because you will be blown away with the detail and insight of the analysis and content. It’s why the RSP has grown so much in the past nine years.

Best yet, 10 percent of each RSP sale is donated to Darkness to Light, a non-profit devoted to preventing and addressing sexual abuse through community training in schools, religious groups, and a variety of civic groups across the U.S.

Download the 2014 RSP and RSP Post-Draft here

In Case You Missed It/Coming Soon

• Deny Emotion and You Only See a Fraction of the Game – Football and its analysis have become more intellectual in recent decades, but emotion still has a seat at the table and a voice.
• Boiler Room: West Virginia WR Kevin White – Physical and sure-handed, find out what could take White’s game to greater heights.
• RSP Film Room No.6: RB Zach Zenner and DE Shane Ray – Alex Brown of Optimum Scouting visits the film room. He gives a clinic on edge play and find out what surprised him about Zenner.
• The Stiff-Arm Collection – 100 percent fun viewing, no analysis added
• Boiler Room: Auburn WR Sammie Coates – A great athlete, but a raw receiver, Coates does have redeeming qualities that could make him a good NFL starter.
• Futures: UCLA LB/RB Myles Jack – “Myles Jack once took a knee in a victory formation . . . he gained 38 yards on the play.”
• Futures: Shaq Thompson – The LB/DB/RB is mostly a defender with a minor identity crisis.

Reads/Views (Football)

• Scientists Dissected the Brains of 79 NFL Players. What They Found Is Disturbing – The latest data from Boston University researchers is more bad news for the reeling league.
• Week 5 (2014) Game Scripts: The Kardiac Kids Are Back 
• Any Given Sunday: Patriots over Bengals – Andrew Healy joins Football Outsiders. Here’s his first piece at the site.
• Matt Bowen’s Week 6 NFL Film Study  – You could do a lot worse than reading a Bowen article every week.

Listens – The Three-Cone Drill Podcast

Rivers McCown and Danny Tuccitto host the Three-Cone Drill Podcast. It’s a fine show (adult language is a factor so keep that in mind where and when you’re listening) and one I hoped to join as a guest. The duo was kind enough to have me on last week.

They split the show into two episodes. You can find them here. I would have embedded them, but WordPress doesn’t like the normal embed procedures.  Here are the combined show notes:

Part I

• Why did Teddy Bridgewater fall in the draft? What are scouts telling Matt about why they don’t consider quarterbacks higher in the draft right now? Is the industry too risk-averse? Is the pre-draft process overblowing criticism?
• How do the draftnik outsiders and the NFL insiders have such a wildly divergent opinion on players?
• What Matt watches for when he’s watching a regular game, and what Matt watches for when he’s watching for the RSP.
• How does Matt decide who should be in the RSP? Who does he double-check his list for? What systems does he employ?
• The “grimy” side of football writing. The kind of effort necessary to be the best. (Praise for Mike Tanier.)
• How being a football writer is simultaneously like eating chocolate-chip cookies everyday and like the song “Moon River.”

Part II

• What schemes and coaches does Matt admire? Why will I be saying Dick Bumpas for the rest of time?
• How situational awareness separates great players from good players.
• What was Matt’s background? How did Matt get into the “internet scouting” game?
• There are a ton of scouting sites. A ton of stats-based sites. How do we discern which ones we should pay attention to in an age where there’s so much data?
• Why did Matt stop venturing into the land of stats and find his niche in scouting?
• We go back and ask Matt Waldman a reader question about the victimhood in his Ray Rice column, leading to a larger discussion on victimhood and writing from perspective.

Reads (Life In General)

• Mystery Surrounds Appearance of Frightening, Evil Clowns Roaming Deserted Streets in California Town in Dead of Night  – If Clowns creep you out — and you kind of like it — check out this article.
• First hint of ‘life after death’ in biggest ever scientific study – Southampton University scientists have found evidence that awareness can continue for a least several minutes after clinical death…previously thought impossible.
• Modern Family Editor Live-Tweets Plane Passenger’s Drunken Meltdown –  It’s amazing what the combination a few (short of a dozen) drinks and cramped quarters at a high altitude can do.
• The Insane Conspiracy Theories of Naomi Wolf – I read one of well-received books that hadn’t veered so sharply into this territory.
• Research Shows Dogs Are Much Smarter Than We Think – 60 Minutes produced a piece on the research behind this statement. Well worth watching.
• Dognition – See the World Through Your Best Friend’s Eyes (as featured in the link above)
• Hollywood Could Learn a Few Things From David Fincher’s Se7en– Robbie Gonzalez’s RSP-styled breakdown of the movie director. Love Fincher’s brief statement at the end — oddly tells me that he’s probably a very grounded dude.
• Barbecue Food Truck Owner Helps Ministry Feed Hundreds of Homeless Every Month – Proud to know and call this guy my friend.
• Simple Ways to “Age Proof” Your Body Before It Starts Breaking Down – For Cian Fahey. You’re already sounding like a grumpy old man on Twitter.
• 24 maps and charts that explain marijuana

Listens/Views – Polyphonic Overtone Singing

Listens – Kandace Springs “Love Got In The Way”

Listens – Central Park North – Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra