From Phillips TV and Atomic Skis

Hummingbirds, Gorillas, and Polar Bears; CFB Mid-Season All-American Team, Andrew Healey, Aut0-Correct Humanity?

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 – Fearless Hummingbirds at a Brazilian Household

Views-Damian Aspinall’s Extraordinary Gorilla Encounter

RSP Film Room: UGA RB Todd Gurley

Good friend Cecil Lammey of Footballguys and ESPN Radio Denver stops by the RSP Film Room to take a look at UGA RB Todd Gurley against South Carolina. Gurley is one of the top backs in this class and arguably the best every-down feature back prospect available. Points of discussion from this show include:

• Gurley’s foot-frequency and stride variation.
• Evidence of Gurley’s hip flexibility to change direction in awkward situations.
• When and why good pad level is important.
• Reading the context of a play to determine success/failure with pass protection.
• How running back play parallels musical improvisation.
• A few things Terrell Davis shared with Lammey about the difference between the average NFL running back and a special back.

More Film Room episodes here.

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

• DeMarco Murray: RSP Flashback, Sr. Bowl Story, & Sample
• Boiler Room: Former Texas RB Joe Bergeron
• Futures: Rutgers TE Tyler Kroft
• 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.

Reads/Views (Football)

• Dynasty, In Theory: A Taxonomy of Belief – Get past the intro, and Adam Harstad does a great job of continuing the conversation I started with this piece on emotions in football.
• Homeless Athletes: This is a football story as much as it is a basketball story. Raiders receiver James Jones is among them. 100,000 athletes in America a homeless.
• College Football Mid-Season All-American Team – John Harris’ nominees.
• Coaches Corner: Learning the Wrong Lessons From Failure – Andrew Healey’s work at Football Perspective.

Views – Now This is a Polar Bear Club

Reads (Life In General)

• ‘Grit’ might be more important than IQ – Now schools need to learn to teach it.
• Fine Dining for Second Graders – A group of elementary school kids are invited to one of the finest restaurants in New York. It will make most of you smile.
• Brain Myths Debunked – Mozart doesn’t make you smarter, creativity and logic aren’t as segregated as described, and 86-ing the 10 percent theory.
• Podcast Your Privacy For a Sweet Treat – The private info that average folks in America were willing to give up for something sweet to eat.
• Private Donors Supply Spy Gear to Cops – Here’s an example in Atlanta.
• The Racial Disparity in Fatal Police Shootings  – Ferguson isn’t over in Missouri or anywhere else.
• 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Orgasm
• 12 of the Most Haunted Places in Europe
• A Pithy Response to ‘Muslims are violent’ in one statement – Involves the Nobel Peace Prize.
• A Conversation About Confront Hard Truths & Giving Up Bullshit Excuses – Q&A of author of Life on Fire: A Step-by-Step Guide to Living Your Dreams.

Listens/Views – Largest Glacier Calving Ever Filmed

Listens – Can We Auto-Correct Humanity?

Listens – Dog Passes Out From Excitement

Even with my headphones on Zook perks his head up and looks at me alarmed when I play this video.