Forum Championship Manager 01 02
Sacha Weakland
With concerns for player safety at an all-time high, the New England Patriots and USA Football are leading the charge to change the culture of the sport and create a smarter, safer way to coach and play the game.
On May 11, youth league commissioners from throughout the region gathered at the USA Football New England Youth Leadership Forum to discuss best practices and new ideas to improve player safety for participants at the sport's grassroots level. The event, held at Gillette Stadium, was hosted by the Patriots in conjunction with USA Football, the official youth league development partner of the NFL.
USA Football regional manager Ed Passino facilitated the conversation and focused on several important aspects of youth football, including concussion recognition and response, coaching education, equipment fitting and tackling technique.
These topics are the pillars of USA Football's new Heads Up Football program, a comprehensive approach to improving player safety that already has been adopted by more than 2,000 youth leagues throughout the country for the 2013 season.
"This year was an outstanding forum as Ed discussed the new Heads Up program," said Joe Panniello, president of the Pop Warner Conference of Eastern Massachusetts and a forum attendee for the last six years. "I always find the forum very informative and walk away learning something new to bring to my conference."
"I enjoyed the contact section, as far as how to tackle properly," he said. "I'm going to make every coach join, and it will be mandatory for all coaches in our league to be certified into the Heads Up program."
For many forum attendees, the highlight of the event was the open, collaborative discussion between youth league commissioners. Throughout the conversation, league leaders discussed common issues and possible solutions to their problems.
"I really like the way USA Football is involving the parents," Cunha said. "Safety for the kids is our thing right now, especially with all the news surrounding concussions. It's important to get the parents involved. USA Football has parents doing exactly what the kids are doing, so that they can correct their children's technique. They are concerned with their children's safety and should be more involved with it."
Patriots Cheerleaders Preliminary Auditions will be held on Saturday, April 5, 2014 in the Dana Farber Field House at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA. Registration will begin at 10:00 a.m. An Optional Audition Workshop will be held on Saturday, February 22, 2014 at Gillette Stadium. Click here for details.
The Patriots are set to take on the Colts in Foxborough, but which visitor will be the most important for New England to contain. Give us your pick by voting in this week's Samsonite Make Your Case poll.
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I hope this will be helpful to people who are considering Congressional work as a career option. Because I am early in my career, I imagine this will be most helpful/applicable for people who are in undergrad or earlier.
It's true that this forum is read by many fewer people than, say, view the home and garden section on Amazon.com, but I suspect that global welfare is more easily increased by improving this site than Amazon.
The international debating community mostly consists of undergraduate students from around 50 countries (elite universities are represented across all continents). Debaters tend to be willing to sit and reflect upon themes for hours, both when preparing for a competition and when analyzing their performance after each debate round. Long online discussions are the norm in the community, similar to EA's. As such, a theme-specific championship is a rare opportunity to engage a highly diverse audience in a meaningful way that can spark interest for a long time.
My current view is that there is a small but substantive chance that a scenario along these lines occurs, and that many people alive today -- including myself -- live to see humanity permanently disempowered by artificial systems. In the final section, I take an initial stab at quantifying this risk [...] My main hope, though, is not to push for a specific number, but rather to lay out the arguments in a way that can facilitate productive debate.
Working in Congress could be a highly impactful career choice for EAs who are US citizens and permanent residents, as 80,000 Hours has written about in their Congressional staffer career guide. This two-part overview complements that guide by explaining in more detail how Congress works. The goal is to allow EAs to make informed decisions about (a) whether Congress is a good place for them to work, (b) which Congressional jobs they could/should target and why, and (c) how to find and pursue opportunities.
Voters recused themselves from voting on posts written by themselves or their colleagues. Otherwise, they used their own individual criteria for choosing posts, though they broadly agree with the goals outlined above.
I also want to mention this comment from Larks, which I thought was very strong. However, I considered a dozen other comments this month, and with so many good options to choose from, decided that it was better not to nominate a fellow judge. (I discussed this with Larks, and we decided to post this notice.)
The 2021 group of 40 women aspiring to NFL jobs as coaches, scouts and front office personnel spent two days last week remotely commingling with Commissioner Roger Goodell and his wife Jane; team owners Sheila Ford Hamp of the Lions and Dee Haslam of the Browns; a variety of general managers and coaches; and several women currently employed by teams.
"It was invaluable to know I was not doing it alone. We were all there to gather as much information and absorb it and put it to practice. That is the thing with internships, you make it what you get out of it."
The Goodells have been champions of the forum since it launched and are thrilled with the results so far. The commissioner, addressing the contributions women are making on the sidelines and in the front office and across the scouting spectrum, told the 2021 group at the outset of last week's event: The work they have put in and what they are giving to this game is truly remarkable. I hope you get to see all these people who have been in your seats before and you will be part of this panel in a different form soon."
Attending for the second straight year was Sophia Lewin, a quality control coach for Princeton. Lewin earned an internship with the Bills in 2020, but it never happened because of the pandemic. She is hopeful to begin her NFL journey this year in Buffalo.
Her duties at Princeton, which didn't play last season with the Ivy League shut down, have mostly been with the offense: meeting with quarterbacks; assisting in drills; working on the playbook; providing one-on-one time with the players.
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