Thanks, Bloom!

A Duo of Devantes, A Meghan Trainor Parody, An Early Anonymous Scouts Story, and A Love Supreme.

What is Reads Listens Views?

If you’re new to the Rookie Scouting Portfolio blog, welcome.  I post links on Fridays to pieces that I’ve found personally compelling or to content I haven’t read yet. You may not like everything listed here, but you’re bound to like something.

Listens – Meghan Trainor Parody

Funny poke at the popular music industry.

RSP Film Room No.15 -A Duo of Devantes (Parker and Davis)

For a complete list of RSP Film Room episodes, check out this page. Future guests include Draft Mehcca’s Eric Stoner, running back Chad Spann, and Justis Mosqueda.

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

• Performance In Context – You don’t need to be an X and O’s genius to develop a good eye for talent. However, a solid foundation is helpful.
• What I’ve Learned: Context and Perspective Trump Technique With Player Evaluation
• RSP Sample: Cardinals RB Kerwynn Williams – Pre-draft analysis and a breakdown of Williams’ and Marion Grice’s carries in the Chiefs game.
• Futures: QB Jameis Winston – The analysis on the field . . .
• Jameis Winston On Stage and Behind the Curtain – And my take of his character issues off it.
• No-Huddle Series: Have You Seen Sean Price?  Brian Quick has nothing on Price…well, except for a clean record.
• Trick Shot Hero: SDSU WR Ezel Ruffin
• Futures: Six Memorable Lessons About Talent Evaluation

Reads/Views (Football)

• An Early Look at the NFL Draft – Bob McGinn talks to his scouting buddies, who hand feed him Chicken McNuggets.
• Week 14 QB Report: Efficient day for Derek Carr, Teddy Bridgewater – Good reading about two quarterbacks performing well, considering the circumstances.
• That Time An NFL Team used Truth Serum On An Injured Player – Tampa Bay didn’t believe a player, so they shot him up and interrogated him.
• Going Long: A Marshawn Kind of Way – Robert Klemko is a fine features writer and I greatly enjoyed his take on Marshawn Lynch, who has always been my kind of people.
• Even a single season of high school football might harm the brain

Views – John McCain’s CIA Torture Report Senate Speech

When a veteran of McCain’s stature as a U.S. Senator believes the perpetrators should be tried for war crimes, it’s well worth a listen. Our government has failed miserably in this regard. And if folks are worried about the potential for retaliation for this report, please understand that we the people of the United States are the last to know –thanks in part to denial.

Reads (Life In General)

• Getting to ‘No’ – A piece that every son over the age of 12 should read.
• The Dad Letters: Your Pit Bull – A dad tells his daughter River about her dog Zoe and at the time teaches a huge lesson on tolerance and inclusion in society.
• The Village Voice’s Top 10 Jazz Albums of 2014
• Schmaltz Finds a Newer, Younger Audience – Rendered poultry fat and gribenes (chicken cracklin’ “fer” country folk like my wife).
• BPA in Cans and Plastic Bottles Linked to Quick Rise in Bloom Pressure – Take a drink of BPA and see that BP rise dramatically in a few hours.
• Dwight McCarter: The Tracker – A Garden & Gun article about a 30-year veteran tracker of lost souls in the Smoky Mountains. H/T to Joe Bryant.
• Exhausted by a House That Saves Energy – Was it too soon to be sustainable for this couple in Vermont? What they have to do to never pay a utility bill takes more than a little work.
• Stages of Injustice Against Black People – Biting commentary, but well done.
• When a Rapist’s Weapon Is a Drug  – The case cosmetics heir Andrew Luster.
• The Point When Science Becomes Publicity -How does exaggeration make its way into health news? A study today says, blame academia.
• Seriously, Fuck, Discovery And Its ‘Eaten Alive’ By An Anaconda Show – A-fuckin-men
• ‘These are NASA’s Coolest and Strangest Airplanes of the Future – Will fuel the imagination of plenty of conspiracy theorists.

Listens – Happy 50th to One of My Fave Albums