Welcome to back Reads Listens Views, glad to see you.

Listens: Dave Holland “Mr. PC”

The Return of Reads Listens Views?

If you’re new to the Rookie Scouting Portfolio blog, welcome.  Until last December, I used Fridays to post links to pieces that I’ve found personally compelling or to content I haven’t read yet. I moved in spring of 2014 and I had a lot of logistical adjustments, including finding an adequate way to build and maintain a growing library of college game games. I had to drop something from my schedule and it mean Reads Listens Views was the first to go.

I had a false start with returning RLV to the rotation in April, but I’m hoping I can make it stick. As I’ve long said about this Friday feature, you may not like everything listed here, but you’re bound to like something.

Reads: My Current Rotation

• The Art of Smart Football – Chris Brown’s (@SmartFootball) followup to his first book is an excellent combination of storytelling and Xs and Os deconstruction of what’s influencing the game. Do yourself a solid and buy this book.  I also recommend his recent update to his football glossary at the Smart Football site.
• Several short sentences about writing – Verlyn Klinkenborg is a novelist, teacher, and on the editorial board of the New York Times. His book is a departure from many publications on writing. It’s meditative, elegant, and encourages you to let go of all the bullshit that you’ve picked up in school.
• The Complete Wide Receiver – Jay Norvell has coached the position for over 30 years. His pupils have included Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, Tim Brown, Jerry Rice, Michael Clayton, Jerome Pathon, Jerry Porter, and most recently, Dorial Green-Beckham. This book was recommended to me, because a scout thought I had read it based on my observations of the position. Reading it has been a validation and a valuable pursuit of knowledge.
• The Yiddish Policeman’s Union – Michael Chabon’s murder mystery is set in Sitka, Alaska, a town that was once proposed as a place for European Jews to relocate as a homeland. Chabon uses this story to make it a fictional reality. Great characters.  

Download the 2015 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.

 If you’re in a dynasty league, the combination of the 2015 RSP and the RSP Post-Draft will have you prepared for this year and beyond.

Here’s just a sample of what my readers–new and old–are saying about the 2015 RSP.  (Get ready for “Squee!” “Dammnits” and jaws dropping)

Take a video tour of the 2015 pre-draft to see what I mean:

Seriously, this analysis is worth the price of the 2015 RSP package alone, but you also get the post-draft addendum with your purchase of the 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 10 years.

Download the 2015 RSP and RSP Post-Draft here

Every Play Tells A Story: A New Video Series at the RSP Blog By Eric Stoner

Stoner does a great job of showing you why this deep post Jacoby Brisset throws in the Georgia Southern game is the best decision based on pre-snap coverage info, the resulting progression, and the post-snap timing and development of the N.C. State QB’s drop and the pass rush. Well done, Stoner. Well done. You can follow him on Twitter @BeauxJaxson.

In Case You Missed It/Coming Soon

• The Gut Check No.339 – Players I Believe In – Posted last night at Footballguys.com, I give you 22 rounds worth of players who I believe in what they can do if given the opportunity.
• Brandon Thorn’s Defense to Defend the Planet – A nasty 3-4 headlined by…hell, everyone’s a headliner.
• Brandon Thorn’s Offense to Defend the Planet – The ultimate West Coast Offense. I love the pick of Sterling Sharpe. I still have pangs of regret he won’t be on my squad.
• On the Couch Podcast with Sigmund Bloom and Yours Truly – We go through my pre-training camp PPR tiers, ADP, and over-undervalued prospects.
• The RSP Writers Project: Team to Defend the Planet – How would you build a team if aliens challenged you to a game with the planet on the line?  I discuss on RotoViz’s pod.

St. Landry Parish Crimestoppers Search for “BulletHead” (H/T to @Smartfootball)

This appears to be a weekly series and Lieutenant Higgins’ way of informing the community is humorous, southern bizarre, entertaining, and awesom.

Reads/Views (Football) – It’s a Footballguys Lineup This Week (Subscribe, It’s Well Worth It)

• PupDates: Who’s Ready to Practice? – Jene Bramel (@jenebramel) makes sense of the alphabet soup of the NFL’s injury lists.
• Preseason Roundtable No.1 – Various staff, including yours truly, share views on breakout RBs, the Dolphins passing game, Top WRs, and the Cowboys ground game.
• How to Project Receiving Yards – Chase Stuart (@fbgchase) of Football Perspective fame shows you a strong methodology for projecting receivers.
• Rethinking VBD – Adam Harstad (@AdamHarstad) Revisits this seminal method for calculating player value in fantasy leagues.
• Reception Perception: Success Rate vs. Coverage Scores for Sophomore WRs -Matt “Peaches” Harmon (@MattHarmon_BYB) delivers this sweet bit of analysis.

Views – Hybrid Animal-Wildlife-Human Anatomy Murals by Alexis Diaz

Reads (Life In General)

• Esquire’s 80 Best Books Every Man (and every woman who knows one of us dumb asses) Should Read 
• The Other Side of Fame – A Psychology Today article from several years back.
• American Racism in the ‘White Frame’ – Joe Feagin is a sociologist and leading researcher of racism in the U.S. for more than 40 years. He teaches at Texas A&M.
• Sonny Rollins Interviewed by Joshua Redman – Two of my favorite musicians have a conversation about craft (from 2005).
• The Obsessively Detailed Map of American Literature’s Most Epic Road Trips – Potential itineraries for Bloom and I when we take his Couch on the road., or I say, “fuck it.”
• Margaret Hamilton, the badass `60s programmer who saved the moon landing – Rad…
• Hackers Remotely Kill a Jeep on The Highway – With Me In it – Things I’d like to hear a few people in our weekly news cycle say.

Listens – Christian McBride Trio and “My Favorite Things”

 Views: RSP Film Room Shorts–The Boiler Room No.1 Trey Williams, Washington’s RB Sleeper?