Zoe’s story, “Removed,” has been seen by millions of people.
It was previously shared by my amazing Upworthy colleague Laura Willard. We got just a tiny taste of what it was like for kids in foster care, right after being removed. Specifically, a little girl named Zoe and her little brother Benaiah.
My wife and I, foster parents for the past year, even shared the original with our adoption worker, who passed it along to the entire agency and, then, it took off like wildfire among those people as well.
This is part 2 of that story, and it hits hard.
(Yes, the video’s on the long side at about 20 minutes. But it’s worth the watch to the end.)
She describes her life as a cycle, interrupted by a tornado. She’s a foster child. I don’t think I need to say any more.
So … let’s accompany that with 9 uncomfortable — but enlightening — facts below. There are only nine bolded, but within those headers, there are several more facts.
1. There are an estimated 400,000 kids in foster care right now.
Some are awaiting adoption. Some will go back to their parents. Others will age out or, sometimes, run away.
And PTSD can mimic a lot of other mental illnesses, and it can manifest as nightmares, flashbacks, fight-or-flee responses, anger outbursts, and hyper-vigilance (being on “red alert” at all times), among other symptoms.
3. The average age of a foster child is 9 years old.
They’re just on that edge of childhood, and chances are, it’s been a pretty messed up childhood at that. Trauma does that.
8% are in institutions, 6% are in group homes, and only 4% are in pre-adoptive homes. Read that again — only 4% are in pre-adoptive homes.
5. Some of foster children experience multiple placements. In some cases, eight or more.
That’s eight homes that they move into — and out of. And just consider … that means they lose not just adults and other kids with whom they are establishing a bond, but friends, schoolmates, pets.
6. The average foster child remains in the system for almost two years before being reunited with their biological parents, adopted, aging out, or other outcomes.
8% of them remain in foster care for over five years. Of the 238,000 foster kids who left the system in 2013, about half were reunited with parents or primary caregivers, 21% were adopted, 15% went to live with a relative or other guardian, and 10% were emancipated (aged out).
And if you add that up, year after year, hundreds of thousands of foster youth will have aged out of the system. What does that look like? “You’re 18. You’ve got no place to live and no family. Good luck — buh-bye now!” One-quarter of former foster kids experience homelessness within four years of exiting the system.
They are four-five times more likely to be hospitalized for attempting suicide and five-eight times more likely to be hospitalized for serious psychiatric disorders in their teens.
Based on that set of statistics alone, it’s in the public’s interest (ignoring, for a second, the interests of those kids) to help them through their lot in life and spend resources making it all work much better for everybody before it gets to that point. Right?
So there’s a lot to be angry about in this whole messed up situation. But this next thing? My blood boils.
What’s one of the biggest risk factors in families whose children are placed in foster care?
Together with homelessness and unemployment, it’s a main contributing factor. It happens all the time. The fact that it’s far easier for a parent to be accused and investigated for neglect or abuse because of simple things like lack of access to a vehicle, or a working refrigerator, or the ability to get a kid to a doctor’s appointment — that has a lot to do with this. Tie that to the link between drug abuse and poverty and between poverty and child abuse … well, you can see where this is going.
And in a country where one-third of children are living in poverty (hint: the good ol’ U.S. of A.), imagine how that affects the number of kids being removed and placed into foster care.
I’ll end this with a bit of hope through my story.
My kids went through something a lot like the kids in the clip above before they came to live with us. We’ve been through the ringer in ways that we’re going to have to talk about one day because it’s not just that the kids have been challenging — they have — it’s that the system itself has been more challenging.
The entire system — from agencies to government entities to social workers to even the schools — seems like it’s designed to fail these kids and the families who are attempting to help. It’s almost designed not to work. There, I said it.
But that doesn’t mean we won’t fight to make it better for everybody. We most definitely will.
As for us, we’re just a few weeks away from becoming the legal parents to these kids, and we’re extremely happy to be right here, making it happen. And they seem quite happy to be our kids. Along the way, we fell in love with them, and we can’t imagine life without them.
But to be totally honest … if we’d have known how hard it was going to be when we started this journey, and if we could somehow turn back the clock and NOT do it … well, would we have actually gone forward with the process?
I take that back. I won’t be totally honest here. I will simply let you decide.
Here are some places to help, if you’re so inclined.
AdoptUsKids.org is a place to start if you’re considering fostering or adopting.
My Stuff Bags is a really cool and inexpensive way to help foster kids by gifting them actual luggage, duffel bags, and more, so that they don’t travel from home to home with garbage bags for their belongings — or nothing at all.
CASA for Children offers legal help and advocates for foster kids through a network of volunteers.
This story was written by Brandon Weber and originally appeared on 07.17.15
Zoe’s story, “Removed,” has been seen by millions of people.
It was previously shared by my amazing Upworthy colleague Laura Willard. We got just a tiny taste of what it was like for kids in foster care, right after being removed. Specifically, a little girl named Zoe and her little brother Benaiah.
My wife and I, foster parents for the past year, even shared the original with our adoption worker, who passed it along to the entire agency and, then, it took off like wildfire among those people as well.
This is part 2 of that story, and it hits hard.
(Yes, the video’s on the long side at about 20 minutes. But it’s worth the watch to the end.)
She describes her life as a cycle, interrupted by a tornado. She’s a foster child. I don’t think I need to say any more.
So … let’s accompany that with 9 uncomfortable — but enlightening — facts below. There are only nine bolded, but within those headers, there are several more facts.
1. There are an estimated 400,000 kids in foster care right now.
Some are awaiting adoption. Some will go back to their parents. Others will age out or, sometimes, run away.
And PTSD can mimic a lot of other mental illnesses, and it can manifest as nightmares, flashbacks, fight-or-flee responses, anger outbursts, and hyper-vigilance (being on “red alert” at all times), among other symptoms.
3. The average age of a foster child is 9 years old.
They’re just on that edge of childhood, and chances are, it’s been a pretty messed up childhood at that. Trauma does that.
8% are in institutions, 6% are in group homes, and only 4% are in pre-adoptive homes. Read that again — only 4% are in pre-adoptive homes.
5. Some of foster children experience multiple placements. In some cases, eight or more.
That’s eight homes that they move into — and out of. And just consider … that means they lose not just adults and other kids with whom they are establishing a bond, but friends, schoolmates, pets.
6. The average foster child remains in the system for almost two years before being reunited with their biological parents, adopted, aging out, or other outcomes.
8% of them remain in foster care for over five years. Of the 238,000 foster kids who left the system in 2013, about half were reunited with parents or primary caregivers, 21% were adopted, 15% went to live with a relative or other guardian, and 10% were emancipated (aged out).
And if you add that up, year after year, hundreds of thousands of foster youth will have aged out of the system. What does that look like? “You’re 18. You’ve got no place to live and no family. Good luck — buh-bye now!” One-quarter of former foster kids experience homelessness within four years of exiting the system.
They are four-five times more likely to be hospitalized for attempting suicide and five-eight times more likely to be hospitalized for serious psychiatric disorders in their teens.
Based on that set of statistics alone, it’s in the public’s interest (ignoring, for a second, the interests of those kids) to help them through their lot in life and spend resources making it all work much better for everybody before it gets to that point. Right?
So there’s a lot to be angry about in this whole messed up situation. But this next thing? My blood boils.
What’s one of the biggest risk factors in families whose children are placed in foster care?
Together with homelessness and unemployment, it’s a main contributing factor. It happens all the time. The fact that it’s far easier for a parent to be accused and investigated for neglect or abuse because of simple things like lack of access to a vehicle, or a working refrigerator, or the ability to get a kid to a doctor’s appointment — that has a lot to do with this. Tie that to the link between drug abuse and poverty and between poverty and child abuse … well, you can see where this is going.
And in a country where one-third of children are living in poverty (hint: the good ol’ U.S. of A.), imagine how that affects the number of kids being removed and placed into foster care.
I’ll end this with a bit of hope through my story.
My kids went through something a lot like the kids in the clip above before they came to live with us. We’ve been through the ringer in ways that we’re going to have to talk about one day because it’s not just that the kids have been challenging — they have — it’s that the system itself has been more challenging.
The entire system — from agencies to government entities to social workers to even the schools — seems like it’s designed to fail these kids and the families who are attempting to help. It’s almost designed not to work. There, I said it.
But that doesn’t mean we won’t fight to make it better for everybody. We most definitely will.
As for us, we’re just a few weeks away from becoming the legal parents to these kids, and we’re extremely happy to be right here, making it happen. And they seem quite happy to be our kids. Along the way, we fell in love with them, and we can’t imagine life without them.
But to be totally honest … if we’d have known how hard it was going to be when we started this journey, and if we could somehow turn back the clock and NOT do it … well, would we have actually gone forward with the process?
I take that back. I won’t be totally honest here. I will simply let you decide.
Here are some places to help, if you’re so inclined.
AdoptUsKids.org is a place to start if you’re considering fostering or adopting.
My Stuff Bags is a really cool and inexpensive way to help foster kids by gifting them actual luggage, duffel bags, and more, so that they don’t travel from home to home with garbage bags for their belongings — or nothing at all.
CASA for Children offers legal help and advocates for foster kids through a network of volunteers.
This story was written by Brandon Weber and originally appeared on 07.17.15
Years ago, a friend went to a party, and something bothered him enough to rant to me about it later.
And it bothered me that he was so incensed about it, but I couldn’t put my finger on why. It seemed so petty for him to be upset, and even more so for me to be annoyed with him.
Recently, something reminded me of that scenario, and it made more sense. I’ll explain.
The party was a house party.
One of those parties people throw if they’re renting a good-sized house in college. You know the type — loud music, Solo cups of beer, and somebody doing something drunk and stupid before the end of the night.
At some point, my friend had occasion to use the bathroom. When he went into the bathroom, he was disgusted to see that the hostess had left a basket of menstrual hygiene products on the counter for guests to use if needed.
Later, when my friend told me about it, he wrinkled his nose and said, “Why would she do that? Guys don’t want to see that!”
When I suggested that she was just making them available in case someone needed them, he insisted they could be left in the cabinet or under the counter. Out of sight, anyway.
I wish I’d had, at the time, the ability to articulate what I can now.
To me, this situation is, while relatively benign, a perfect example of male privilege.
A man walks into the bathroom and sees a reminder that people have periods. And he’s disgusted. He wants that evidence hidden away because it offends his senses. How dare the hostess so blatantly present tampons and pads where a man might see them? There’s no reason for that!
Someone who gets a period walks into the bathroom and sees that the hostess is being extra considerate. They get it. They know what it’s like to have a period start unexpectedly. The feeling of horror because they’re probably wearing something they don’t want ruined — it is a party after all. The sick embarrassment because someone might notice, especially if they’re wearing light-colored clothes, or worse, they sat on the hostess’ white couch.
The self-conscious, semi-nauseated feeling of trying to get through a social event after you’ve exhausted every avenue to get your hands on an emergency pad or tampon, and you’re just hoping to God that if you tie your jacket around your waist (you brought one, right?), keep your back to a wall, clench your butt cheeks, squeeze your thighs tightly together, and don’t … move … at … all — you might get through the evening, bow out gracefully, and find an all-night convenience store with a public restroom.
Or maybe they came to the party during their period, but didn’t bargain for the flow to suddenly get that heavy. Or they desperately need a tampon, but their purse or bag is in a room where a couple is not to be disturbed. Maybe they don’t know the hostess well enough to ask if they can use one. Or they don’t know anyone at the party well enough to ask. Or they figure they can make do with some wadded up toilet paper or something.
Whatever the case, they walk into the bathroom and hear the hostess saying, “Hey, I know what it’s like, and just in case, I’ve got your back.” They see someone saving them from what could be a minor annoyance or a major embarrassment.
The hostess gets it.
The person who just walked into the bathroom? They’re either going to see that the person throwing the party is super considerate or they’re going to be whispering “thanks to Jesus, Krishna, and whoever else is listening” because that is a basket full of social saviors.
But to the guy who wrinkled his nose, it’s still offensive that those terrible little things are on the counter, reminding his delicate sensibilities that the playground part of a person is occasionally unavailable due to a “gross” bodily function that he should never have to think about.
In the grand scheme of things, it’s a tiny thing. It’s a tiny annoyance for the man and a more significant, but relatively tiny, courtesy for the person with their period. After all these years, my friend has probably forgotten, but I never have. As a person whose life is partially governed by a fickle uterus that can ruin an evening faster than a submerged iPhone, his story has stuck with me.
How can you be so offended by a small gesture that has zero effect on you, but could make such an enormous difference to the person who needs it?
It occurs to me now that this is a small but effective illustration of how different people can see the world.
It’s part of the same thought process that measures a woman’s value through her bra size and her willingness to have sex with him — that everything about us is displayed or hidden based on how men perceive them or what he wants to get from us. Unattractive women should be as covered as possible, while attractive ones shouldn’t be hiding their assets from male eyes (or hands, or anything else he wishes to use).
A woman who isn’t smiling is an affront to him because it detracts from her prettiness, despite the fact that there might be a legitimate reason for her not to smile (or more to the point, there isn’t a legitimate reason for her to smile). Her emotional state is irrelevant because she’s not being pretty. It’s the line of thinking where a man blames anything other than cheerful sexual consent on the woman being a bitch, being a lesbian, or — naturally — being on her period. Everything we do, from our facial expressions to our use of hygiene products, is filtered through the lens of “how it looks to a man.”
It’s the line of thinking where a small gesture from one person to another, an assurance that someone else understands and will help without question or judgment, a gesture that could save a person’s evening from being ruined is trumped by a man’s desire to see an untainted landscape of pretty, smiling women with visible cleavage and bodies that never bleed.
And people wonder why we still need feminism.
This story was written by L.A. Witt and originally appeared on 8.12.16
Years ago, a friend went to a party, and something bothered him enough to rant to me about it later.
And it bothered me that he was so incensed about it, but I couldn’t put my finger on why. It seemed so petty for him to be upset, and even more so for me to be annoyed with him.
Recently, something reminded me of that scenario, and it made more sense. I’ll explain.
The party was a house party.
One of those parties people throw if they’re renting a good-sized house in college. You know the type — loud music, Solo cups of beer, and somebody doing something drunk and stupid before the end of the night.
At some point, my friend had occasion to use the bathroom. When he went into the bathroom, he was disgusted to see that the hostess had left a basket of menstrual hygiene products on the counter for guests to use if needed.
Later, when my friend told me about it, he wrinkled his nose and said, “Why would she do that? Guys don’t want to see that!”
When I suggested that she was just making them available in case someone needed them, he insisted they could be left in the cabinet or under the counter. Out of sight, anyway.
I wish I’d had, at the time, the ability to articulate what I can now.
To me, this situation is, while relatively benign, a perfect example of male privilege.
A man walks into the bathroom and sees a reminder that people have periods. And he’s disgusted. He wants that evidence hidden away because it offends his senses. How dare the hostess so blatantly present tampons and pads where a man might see them? There’s no reason for that!
Someone who gets a period walks into the bathroom and sees that the hostess is being extra considerate. They get it. They know what it’s like to have a period start unexpectedly. The feeling of horror because they’re probably wearing something they don’t want ruined — it is a party after all. The sick embarrassment because someone might notice, especially if they’re wearing light-colored clothes, or worse, they sat on the hostess’ white couch.
The self-conscious, semi-nauseated feeling of trying to get through a social event after you’ve exhausted every avenue to get your hands on an emergency pad or tampon, and you’re just hoping to God that if you tie your jacket around your waist (you brought one, right?), keep your back to a wall, clench your butt cheeks, squeeze your thighs tightly together, and don’t … move … at … all — you might get through the evening, bow out gracefully, and find an all-night convenience store with a public restroom.
Or maybe they came to the party during their period, but didn’t bargain for the flow to suddenly get that heavy. Or they desperately need a tampon, but their purse or bag is in a room where a couple is not to be disturbed. Maybe they don’t know the hostess well enough to ask if they can use one. Or they don’t know anyone at the party well enough to ask. Or they figure they can make do with some wadded up toilet paper or something.
Whatever the case, they walk into the bathroom and hear the hostess saying, “Hey, I know what it’s like, and just in case, I’ve got your back.” They see someone saving them from what could be a minor annoyance or a major embarrassment.
The hostess gets it.
The person who just walked into the bathroom? They’re either going to see that the person throwing the party is super considerate or they’re going to be whispering “thanks to Jesus, Krishna, and whoever else is listening” because that is a basket full of social saviors.
But to the guy who wrinkled his nose, it’s still offensive that those terrible little things are on the counter, reminding his delicate sensibilities that the playground part of a person is occasionally unavailable due to a “gross” bodily function that he should never have to think about.
In the grand scheme of things, it’s a tiny thing. It’s a tiny annoyance for the man and a more significant, but relatively tiny, courtesy for the person with their period. After all these years, my friend has probably forgotten, but I never have. As a person whose life is partially governed by a fickle uterus that can ruin an evening faster than a submerged iPhone, his story has stuck with me.
How can you be so offended by a small gesture that has zero effect on you, but could make such an enormous difference to the person who needs it?
It occurs to me now that this is a small but effective illustration of how different people can see the world.
It’s part of the same thought process that measures a woman’s value through her bra size and her willingness to have sex with him — that everything about us is displayed or hidden based on how men perceive them or what he wants to get from us. Unattractive women should be as covered as possible, while attractive ones shouldn’t be hiding their assets from male eyes (or hands, or anything else he wishes to use).
A woman who isn’t smiling is an affront to him because it detracts from her prettiness, despite the fact that there might be a legitimate reason for her not to smile (or more to the point, there isn’t a legitimate reason for her to smile). Her emotional state is irrelevant because she’s not being pretty. It’s the line of thinking where a man blames anything other than cheerful sexual consent on the woman being a bitch, being a lesbian, or — naturally — being on her period. Everything we do, from our facial expressions to our use of hygiene products, is filtered through the lens of “how it looks to a man.”
It’s the line of thinking where a small gesture from one person to another, an assurance that someone else understands and will help without question or judgment, a gesture that could save a person’s evening from being ruined is trumped by a man’s desire to see an untainted landscape of pretty, smiling women with visible cleavage and bodies that never bleed.
And people wonder why we still need feminism.
This story was written by L.A. Witt and originally appeared on 8.12.16
Sorry to all of the people out there who might have their game ruined by the following story. But the truth is that if you have a beard, you should take the necessary precautions to ensure that the next person you kiss doesn’t wind up with a major case of beard burn.
A disturbing video went viral on TikTok featuring a woman with red spots on her chin who claims to have “kissed a guy with facial hair.” The clip caught the attention of Dr. Muneeb Shah, known on TikTok as “The Derm Doctor.”
PSA: clean your beards @Rylee Kriete #dermdoctor #impetigo
The Derm Doctor is incredibly popular on the platform, with over 18 million followers. His response to the red-faced woman racked up over 19 million views.
In the video, the Derm Doctor confirmed that making out with someone with a big beard can cause problems. “Clean your beards,” the doctor said before explaining that they can cause minor cuts in the kiss recipient’s face. Further, if the beard isn’t clean, bacteria can be transferred to the open wounds, resulting in impetigo.
Impetigo is a bacterial infection that can be cleared up with antibiotics.
The good news is that this infection of passion can be prevented with a bit of prevention. “On the receiving end, using a barrier cream or moisturizer before contact can help,” Dr. Kautilya Shaurya, MD, board-certified dermatologist at Schweiger Dermatology Group in NYC, tells Real Simple. Dr. Shaurya also suggests that those with beards keep them short, moisturized and clean so they don’t injure their partners.
Sorry to all of the people out there who might have their game ruined by the following story. But the truth is that if you have a beard, you should take the necessary precautions to ensure that the next person you kiss doesn’t wind up with a major case of beard burn.
A disturbing video went viral on TikTok featuring a woman with red spots on her chin who claims to have “kissed a guy with facial hair.” The clip caught the attention of Dr. Muneeb Shah, known on TikTok as “The Derm Doctor.”
PSA: clean your beards @Rylee Kriete #dermdoctor #impetigo
The Derm Doctor is incredibly popular on the platform, with over 18 million followers. His response to the red-faced woman racked up over 19 million views.
In the video, the Derm Doctor confirmed that making out with someone with a big beard can cause problems. “Clean your beards,” the doctor said before explaining that they can cause minor cuts in the kiss recipient’s face. Further, if the beard isn’t clean, bacteria can be transferred to the open wounds, resulting in impetigo.
Impetigo is a bacterial infection that can be cleared up with antibiotics.
The good news is that this infection of passion can be prevented with a bit of prevention. “On the receiving end, using a barrier cream or moisturizer before contact can help,” Dr. Kautilya Shaurya, MD, board-certified dermatologist at Schweiger Dermatology Group in NYC, tells Real Simple. Dr. Shaurya also suggests that those with beards keep them short, moisturized and clean so they don’t injure their partners.
Every era has its own taste in interior decor, and the typical post-Millenium American home is saturated in grays and beige, or “Greige,” as the vibe is known. It’s a far cry from the flashiness of the late ‘60s and ‘70s, the Brownpolcalype that was the ‘80s, or the hunter green-hued ‘90s.
The current trend in minimalist decor, even during the holiday season, rubbed TikTokker Ave the wrong way, and she’s fighting back with an audacious display that recalls a world before farmhouse chic was a thing.
“I have decided that I will not be participating in ‘Minimalist Beige Christmas’ this year,” TikTok user Ave says while showing a picture of some very beige, very sparse holiday decor. “If this is what you like, if this is what you want, good for you, do it, enjoy the hell out of it. It’s not for me. I think this is pretty, I think it’s simple, I don’t think it’s giving enough. Not for me.”
I usually dont decorate until after thanksgiving but I might change that this year #christmasdecor #nostalgicchristmas #colorfulchristmas #maximalist #maximalistchristmas #nostalgia #interview #fyp #greenscreen #christmaslights
Ave wants to embrace the history and playfulness of the holiday by making her home a place where nostalgia trumps taste.
“The theme this year is nostalgic early 2000s Christmas. I want all the rainbow lights. I want the mismatched ornaments. I want the random wrapping paper. I want nostalgia,” she says. She wants her home to look like someone lives there on Christmas, not a “Crate & Barrel showroom.”
People in the comments feel she totally read the room regarding the vibe of Christmas 2023. “I loved the minimalist Christmas until I had kids, now I want to make sure they experience the Christmas magic I did growing up,” Makayla wrote. “The theme is to try to feel something this year,” NikandTorrie added.
Every era has its own taste in interior decor, and the typical post-Millenium American home is saturated in grays and beige, or “Greige,” as the vibe is known. It’s a far cry from the flashiness of the late ‘60s and ‘70s, the Brownpolcalype that was the ‘80s, or the hunter green-hued ‘90s.
The current trend in minimalist decor, even during the holiday season, rubbed TikTokker Ave the wrong way, and she’s fighting back with an audacious display that recalls a world before farmhouse chic was a thing.
“I have decided that I will not be participating in ‘Minimalist Beige Christmas’ this year,” TikTok user Ave says while showing a picture of some very beige, very sparse holiday decor. “If this is what you like, if this is what you want, good for you, do it, enjoy the hell out of it. It’s not for me. I think this is pretty, I think it’s simple, I don’t think it’s giving enough. Not for me.”
I usually dont decorate until after thanksgiving but I might change that this year #christmasdecor #nostalgicchristmas #colorfulchristmas #maximalist #maximalistchristmas #nostalgia #interview #fyp #greenscreen #christmaslights
Ave wants to embrace the history and playfulness of the holiday by making her home a place where nostalgia trumps taste.
“The theme this year is nostalgic early 2000s Christmas. I want all the rainbow lights. I want the mismatched ornaments. I want the random wrapping paper. I want nostalgia,” she says. She wants her home to look like someone lives there on Christmas, not a “Crate & Barrel showroom.”
People in the comments feel she totally read the room regarding the vibe of Christmas 2023. “I loved the minimalist Christmas until I had kids, now I want to make sure they experience the Christmas magic I did growing up,” Makayla wrote. “The theme is to try to feel something this year,” NikandTorrie added.
Julian Edelman spent 12 years in the NFL, all with the New England Patriots, working his way from being a seventh round pick in 2009 to eventually becoming Tom Brady’s most trusted target en route to three Super Bowl titles (and one Super Bowl MVP award).
After retiring from playing football following the 2020 season, Edelman made his way into the media space, first creating his own content and then joining Inside the NFL. This year, Edelman made the jump to live television with Fox NFL Kickoff, spending an hour every Sunday morning breaking down the day’s upcoming games with Charissa Thompson, Charles Woodson, Michael Vick, and Peter Schrager.
“It’s been awesome. The working environment, the team unity, it feels very comfortable. You know, you feel like you’re part of a team at Fox,” Edelman says. “And everyone at the workplace is awesome. Like everyone is there to go out and perform and do your best on the air, which sounds like Patriot talk, but it really is. I’ve done TV the last two years. I did a recap show on Inside the NFL, which was live-to-tape. Jumping onto live TV and a kickoff show, I like it a little more just because you have the whole week to prepare for your show and know what’s going to go down on Sunday, in comparison to what I used to do where you watch the games Sunday and Monday and you shoot on Tuesday and you have to come up with your thoughts. So it’s different, but I like it.”
The move to Sundays also allows him to mirror his preparation for the show the way he would for a game week during his playing days. Edelman channels the same work ethic that allowed him to go from a seventh round pick to a star in the league into his broadcasting, and that includes seeking out coaching to get better at the craft of being on TV. That means the start of the week is for watching the tape back from Sunday’s show with his broadcasting coach, Jill Montgomery, to see what he can improve on going forward.
“One thing [Bill] Belichick always used to say was, ‘To improve you can’t just go and work hard.’ I can’t just go and watch film or watch TV. You need to find someone or a coach or a mentor or a peer or someone who’s on your team, and you need to find out what you have to work on,” Edelman notes. “So that’s what Jill does for me. She helps me on what I have to work on. I work hard at those things, and then you’ll naturally improve. People don’t realize, yeah, you want it to be like locker room talk up there on TV, but you also still have to be able to put sentences together. And I’ve been in a locker room for the last 13 years, you know, we’re not English majors. We’re football players. So being able to formulate your take and just practicing it which, with reps everything gets better. It’s been a fun process to try to make yourself better at something that you’ve never really done, which gives me, once again, that feeling of what I felt when I was competing in football.”
From there, he spends Wednesdays and Thursdays on calls with the producers to go over topics and Fox’s stats department — who, in his words, are “really great” — to get all the information he needs about the teams so he can analyze the matchups and where advantages lie in that week’s games. Much like how practice and film work allows you to play free once game time rolls around, that preparation during the week allows him to go into Sundays on set and break down games, fire off takes, and banter with his colleagues comfortably and confidently, all within a natural conversation. Edelman calls it his “football fix,” noting that he’s excited to head into the studio on Sundays because he gets to talk football with other football people.
“As athletes, we’re all creatures of habit, Edelman says. “You do miss football and with these kinds of shows you get your fix of sitting and talking football with football people. You’re getting to hear the stories from Charles Woodson. I’m getting to hear Mike Vick’s interpretations on things. Peter Schrager is so in tune with everything — he’s one of those guys that just knows everything and has great memories on games from five or six years ago. Charissa Thompson being like a point guard and dishing things left and right. And she knows her sh*t crazy too. Everyone’s got their role and you get that football fix, you know? Football guys like to talk football with football people, with all due respect to people in the TV world. And that’s what we’re here to do is we’re here to broadcast and perform and give our takes, but ultimately, it’s different when you get to sit and talk to Terry Bradshaw about the 1970s Steelers or Howie [Long] and what he thinks, you know? That’s what you did in the locker room. So you get a fix of that when you get to work on this show. It’s been awesome.”
For an hour every Sunday, he gets that fix, and he particularly appreciates what he can learn from his co-analysts on the desk. There’s an interesting dynamic having a wideout like Edelman on the desk next to a Hall of Fame defensive back in Charles Woodson, alongside one of the most unique quarterbacks to play the game in Michael Vick. For Edelman, what he enjoys is getting to see the game through their eyes, because he only knows one way having only ever played for one coach and alongside one quarterback.
“I was in one system for my whole career. And so, I kind of know my system. I know what [Bill] Belichick thinks on offense and defense. And it’s always good to see guys from different systems or different organizations, and how they have attained success,” Edelman says. “Because there’s multiple ways of doing things. And with Charles, the guy is such an elite DB, not just corner but safety. It’s fun, you can talk coverage with him. With Mike, there’s a lot of stuff that people don’t realize between the receiver and the quarterback, the chemistry. I learned a lot from how he was as a leader and a quarterback and what he wanted. And he hears from how I was coached and how I was taught and how I was with the guys that I played with. It’s good bouncing things off of guys that played meaningful football.”
While he only ever knew “The Patriot Way,” Edelman does have a unique understanding of what it’s like to be on just about every rung of the NFL ladder when it comes to player roles. That allows him to be a bit more empathetic to what players are going through and the various stresses they face, whether it be a guy trying to stick on a roster or a star carrying a heavy burden, and he tries to make sure he considers that in his analysis and discussion of guys.
“I’ve been in every situation. I’ve been the guy trying to make the team. I’ve been the special-teamer bouncing around the squad looking for a role. I’ve been the star receiver. I’ve been the guy who won a Super Bowl. So I’ve been in a lot of roles,” Edelman says. “So I know how hard it is for every single player and the stresses that every single one of these guys have to go through. Everyone has a stress in the National Football League. It doesn’t matter what guy on the team you are. When you’re a guy trying to make the team, you have that stress. When you’re going to try to find a role, you have that stress. When you’re a guy that has expectations as a superstar, you have the stresses of maintaining that excellence and that success. So, I try to put myself in the situation, and it’s hard.”
Edelman continues.
“But also, it depends on how that person that you’re talking about, how they’re coming off and how they’re showing themselves through the media. You can get a read on a guy that comes in that looks like he thinks his stuff doesn’t stink, and we’ve all been in the locker room. So you’ve been around these types of guys, and you always want to understand the situation. But you’re never going to know the situation because you’re not in the situation. You can assume through your experience of situations that you’ve been in that are similar. So, I try to do that.”
As our conversation wore on and we shifted away from TV talk and dove into football more, it became apparent that Edelman really does just love talking ball and could do it for hours a day.
He can’t help but get excited talking about the things he is watching for as the season progresses, particularly the way so many offenses are taking advantage of shifts and motion, particularly from the Shanahan coaching tree, and wondering how defenses were going to adapt as the season went on. He pulled up his stats from that week’s prep and rattled off the teams that ran the most pre-snap motion and compared it to the list of the top 10 offenses, noting the lone exceptions were the Eagles and Bills, and how those teams rely so much on their star QBs, while teams like the Dolphins and 49ers are scheming guys open. He was enamored by Arthur Smith’s use of motion to create space in the running game despite having sub-par QB play, and how we’re getting to see offenses evolve in real time — with excitement for how defenses will adapt alongside.
The result was a quick dissertation on why motions drive defenses crazy, the importance of variability in your personnel groups as an offense, and how having a QB that can make quick reads can unlock everything for an offense — with a little dig at defensive guys as you’d expect from someone who spent his whole life playing offense.
“Defenses — I’m telling I was around the greatest defensive mind in the history of the game — defenses hate that because hey, what are defenders? They’re usually the most athletic guys, but let’s be honest here, they’re not the sharpest tools in the shed. That’s why they play defense,” Edelman says. “So if you get these guys communicating? When you make a team have to communicate, when you bring a motion or a shift, and then the safety drops, these guys don’t want to do that. They want to sit back, and let you do what you have [done] before without the motion, so they can pin back and do what they know they have to do. So, you know it’s a huge asset.
And it also tells you that these teams, the coaching staffs that do this, you have to have a smart team to execute those things. It’s not easy to have multiple personnel groups for communication getting into a huddle. It’s not easy with alignment, assignment, not having pre-snap penalties. You gotta have some smart-coached teams and you’re seeing that with a lot of these teams right now.
There’s going to be some point of the season where these defensive coaches, they get smart too now. These guys are smart. They’re sitting back and they’re dialing up what they’re going to do for these motions and shifts and all that. It all ultimately comes down to the relationship between the quarterback and the coordinator. If you have a quarterback where you have one play that can beat every coverage, you have your zone read up front on the right side, you have a man beater on the backside, you have a checkdown to get out, if you have a quarterback that can understand that? That’s when it gets dangerous. And I was always with the guy that knew that. You know what I mean? That’s when your confidence is at an all time high, and it’s just ultimately about execution. That’s when you get the game within a game; matchups in the game, you know? Because you know how to manipulate the defense just on their tendencies alone through formations, personnel groups, all that. And that’s what you’re seeing a lot of these teams do now.
That’s what we did for a long time in New England. Everyone didn’t like playing us because we had so many different personnel groups. Now people go, ‘Why does that matter?’ Well, if you put in a 13 personnel group you have one receiver, maybe three tight ends and a running back or two tight ends, a fullback, and a running back, what do you get with that? You get a big defense. You get a base defense. Maybe you get a heavy defense. But if you have versatility in players where you can spread that offense out, and you can put them wide? That instantaneously creates slow guys on the field that have to cover space. So that’s the matchups you’re starting to see with a lot of these explosive super offenses that you see in San Francisco that has so much talent everywhere; Miami Dolphins, which have so much speed everywhere. And another thing with those two specific teams, they have such crazy catch-and-run guys. You look at their YAC, yards after catch, these guys will take a six yard throw — I mean, San Francisco’s the best screen team in the goddamn league. They get 100 yards per game on screens, outside screens. They’ll put in the 13 personnel group. They’ll put Christian McCaffrey out wide. You got [Kyle] Juszczyk, you got a f*cking backup tight end, and [George] Kittle out there. And then they throw everyone out there, and they got athletic linemen. And you got base defense out there.
How are you supposed to beat it? So if you have a team that is smart enough to get in and out of the huddle and choreograph this sh*t, sorry for my language, I’m in football talk. That’s what you’re starting to see with some of these teams.”
There really isn’t much better than listening to football talk from football people, and every Sunday morning Edelman gets his fix and gives viewers theirs.
As Dua Lipa is gearing up for the release of her single, “Houdini,” fans are looking forward to hearing the types of sounds she’s experimented with in this impending era. Kevin Parker of Tame Impala is credited as a producer on the song, leading fans to theorize that Lipa’s sound may be evolving from disco and synth-pop to more psychedelic. Given Parker’s resume, fans can gather what “Houdini” might sound like.
What songs has Kevin Parker produced?
In addition to songs for his music projects — which include Tame Impala and Melody’s Echo Chamber — Parker has produced for a variety of artists, including “Aydin” by Discodeine and “Perfect Illusion” by Lady Gaga.
He is credited as a songwriter and producer on “Tomorrow” from Kali Uchis’ debut album, Isolation, “Skeletons” from Travis Scott’s Astroworld, Mark Ronson and Camila Cabello’s collaboration “Find U Again,” and The Weeknd’s “Repeat After Me.”
As a songwriter, Parker is credited on Kanye West’s “Violent Crimes,” as well as Kid Cudi’s “Dive.”
As Parker’s discography shows, he has worked with an eclectic group of artists, but on many of the songs he’s produced, he leans into trippy, transcendental sounds.
Dua Lipa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
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