Posts tagged Darkness to Light

Reads Listens Views 12/7/2012

0 Comments read Reads Listens Views

Listens

[youtube=http://youtu.be/xQd4go1ESvM]

My bud Adrian is traveling through Asia. He met a Dane in Thailand, who hipped him to this Norwegian soul singer-instrumentalist. If you want proof that the world is round just let this pass through your brain one more time: A Texan in Thailand having a guy from Denmark recommend a Norwegian musician who sings soul.

And he’s good. Here’s another.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/DA_tIvWd5-0]

Thank You

If you’re a new follower of this blog or my Twitter account, thank you for doing so. This blog provides analysis year-round as I research, write, and edit my annual publication the Rookie Scouting Portfolio. Now it its eighth year, the RSP is available for download every April 1st. Beginning last year, I allowed readers to prepay/order the RSP beginning in March for the April download due to reader demand to make it so. I will do the same again this year – stay tuned.

Most of all, I want to thank those of you who purchased the 2012 RSP and/or previous RSPs, which are available year-round.  Thanks to you, I have donated over $1800 to Darkness to Light to fulfill my pledge to readers. D2L is a non-profit with the mission of preventing sexual abuse through community training and awareness. As someone who understands the lasting damage that can happen from this type of abuse, raising awareness may not always prevent this predatory behavior, but the ability to help parents and communities understand how to deal with abuse can limit the scope of the damage that often occurs when a victim’s cries for help are met with denial or blame.

If you haven’t purchased the RSP in the past but you enjoy the content on this blog, I encourage you to take the plunge. Past issues of the RSP (2006-2011) are available for $9.95 at the link above. The 2012 RSP is $19.95 and I donate 10 percent of each sale to this cause. Get something that my buddies at DLFootball.com say is worth every penny while supporting a great cause in a fight to prevent sexual abuse.

Fantasy Throwdown

To give full disclosure, yes, I beat my wife in a Throwdown. She challenged me to a game of Fantasy Throwdown last week. Click on the photo for a close up of the score.

AvM ThrowdownBut this wasn’t the best family game of the week. My daughter, Chandler, read my blog post and challenged her sports-loving boyfriend.  Didn’t turn out so well for the boyfriend.

MvA copy Chandler ThrowdownAlthough the Cowboys game wasn’t scored when she took this screen shot, she won a nail-biter. Not bad for someone who has only watched football a little bit in her life. Perhaps there’s some sort of osmosis in play here, right? Wishful thinking I suppose. Anyhow, try FantasyThrowdown. It’s free, simple to play, and addictive.

Football Reads

Non-Football Reads

  • Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math – If you read one thing today – no, if you read one thing this year – read this article by Bill McKibben. Yes, there’s still hope.
  • The Cliff Notes to McKibben’s Must-Read – Yes, I know something about you guys, thanks to the power of analytics. Read it.
  • Capitalism vs. Climate – Naomi Klein’s article from The Nation. Her main takeaway? “The fact that the earth’s atmosphere cannot safely absorb the amount of carbon we are pumping into it is a symptom of a much larger crisis, one born of the central fiction on which our economic model is based: that nature is limitless, that we will always be able to find more of what we need, and that if something runs out it can be seamlessly replaced by another resource that we can endlessly extract.”

Views

[youtube=http://youtu.be/tBNHPk-Lnkk]

Perhaps another reason not to believe everything you see on TV? Fantastic stuff.

Reads Listens Views 6/28/2012

0 Comments read Reads Listens Views

Wish there was a corner like Mike Haynes for the RSP Writers Project

[youtube=http://youtu.be/m-XhOu6PeBY]

Thanks

Another Friday, another round of thanks to my readers – as well as all the writers – frequenting the RSP blog and participating in the RSP Writers Project. This exercise of building an NFL franchise is addictive, isn’t it? It’s also a great platform to share knowledge. Continue reading →

2012 Rookie Scouting Portfolio Publication Update

0 Comments read Uncategorized
Getting to the end zone on a long drive towards finishing the 2012 RSP. Details below. Photo by Joint Base Lewis McChord

I’ll keep this short and sweet: I’m on schedule for the 2012 Rookie Scouting Portfolio publication to be ready for download the evening/night of Sunday, April 1. If you’ve pre-ordered the publication, I’ll write a blog post and use Twitter and Facebook to notify when it’s ready to download.

Remember, all RSP purchases in 2012 will have 10 percent of its monies donated to the non-profit organization Darkness to Light.

For those of you that have pre-ordered, thank you for not only doing so but suggesting it in the first place. It’s humbling to have this kind of early response for the RSP and I have to tell you that while I have added new analysis to the publication this year, this is the first time in the history of the RSP that I’m actually looking forward to starting the book for 2013 before the 2012 NFL Draft.

You’re a big reason why.

If it goes as planned – and I believe it will – I  think the 2013 RSP will be a significant improvement from the past seven issues combined.

I’ll leave you with some Jarrett Boykin analysis…from a really young draftnik. Awesome early start for this kid.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/jDFXDIUUutY]

Mel Kiper better look out.

Donate to Sexual Abuse Prevention

0 Comments read Reads Listens Views
Let's do something to help prevent sexual abuse and promote greater awareness. Photo by Arianna Marchesani.

I think one of the best things about the community of football fans is its generosity with good causes. I think in light of the events at Penn State, I’d like to remind everyone that one of the organizations I had scheduled to donate a share of the revenue from the 2012 Rookie Scouting Portfolio is Darkness to Light.

[Just to be clear, while I would love for you to buy the RSP if you haven’t in the past – and I’m certainly going to use this as a way to make your decision a bit easier. But in the grand scheme of things, it’s more important that you donate to reputable organizations that focus on the prevention of these types of crimes – RSP or not.]

[youtube=http://youtu.be/rSJSXq2Y4Xc]

I found Darkness to Light on Charity Navigator last year and chose it based on its mission:

“Darkness to Light is a national organization and initiative. Our mission is to empower people to prevent child sexual abuse. Darkness to Light’s public awareness campaign seeks to raise awareness of the prevalence and consequences of child sexual abuse.

Again, even if you don’t purchase the Rookie Scouting Portfolio publication I encourage you to find an organization like Darkness to Light or RAIN to assist.

If you are an annual reader of the Rookie Scouting Portfolio publications, I had a poll available on this page for you to determine how much of the allocated percentage of sales revenue I donate to Darkness to Light. I’ve decided instead that I’m going to play benevolent dictator on this decision. I’m giving that percentage solely to Darkness to Light.

Even if you don’t have the dough to spare, you can donate something far more important: your time and willingness to learn how to prevent this from happening in your life. This weekend, I have added pages to help us learn about this epidemic in our society and how to minimize its impact in our homes and communities. If you can learn football stats you should commit some of these stats about sexual abuse to memory. Once you read the facts, learn how to protect children from becoming another statistic.

I think as football fans it’s a good idea we send a message that while we get idiotic about the sport, we’re not a complete bunch of idiots.