Work Together

These sporty nonprofits are bringing athletes and inspiration to The Tailgate

Come learn more about sports-related nonprofits.

Merging Vets & Players/Facebook

If you've been psyching yourself up for The Tailgate on October 13, you likely already know what we'll be serving and what you might want to wear.

But a key component of our newest party is shining a spotlight on sports-related nonprofits —and you'll even get to meet some of the athletes that champion these important causes.

Read up on who's going to be there and how you can get involved in their life-changing work:

The Sandlot
The Sandlot Children's Charity provides financial assistance for kids with physical and intellectual disabilities seeking to participate in athletic opportunities and sport-specific experiences. Their goal is to not only help the kids have sporty, healthy fun, but also promote the continued development of social and leadership skills for these inspiring youth.

Two big fans of The Sandlot will be at The Tailgate: Rangers pitcher Taylor Hearn and former MLB pitcher-turned-sports broadcaster Mike Bacsik. They will be signing autographs, posing for pictures, and raffling off two tickets to a Rangers game (date and time to be mutually agreed-upon by winner and The Sandlot).

Merging Vets and Players
MVP empowers combat veterans and former professional athletes by connecting them after the uniform comes off, providing them with a new team to assist with transition, promote personal development, and show them they are never alone.

Through its peer support program, MVP revolves around weekly sessions consisting of physical fitness followed by a post-workout chat named The Huddle, where members come together and recognize earned scars. The Huddle, run by specially trained facilitators, offers support and shared experience in the hope of helping others choose strategies to heal and progress as they navigate life outside the uniform. Members share challenges, struggles, and successes in a trusted environment of support that encourages vulnerability.

MVP coaches the veterans and athletes to be proud of their service and accomplishments and use what they experienced on the battlefield, playing field, and cage to empower them through the transition. "We don't run from mental health challenges; we tackle them as a team," is one of their mottos.

Both veterans and former professional athletes will be manning the four al fresco Tailgate games: cornhole, mini golf, football toss, and ring toss. Donate $25 to MVP and test your skills against these elite athletes, and try your luck at the raffle for a putter and some MVP swag.

Camp Exposure
Camp Exposure is a faith-based, holistic youth development program centered around student athletes. The program provides strategies, tips, and tools to create a concrete foundation both on and off the field. The organization focuses on developing student-athletes through its seven pillars: identity, mental health, spiritual health, nutrition, relationship skills, professional development, and financial literacy. Its athletes learn and develop skills that help them successfully navigate through life’s challenges and transition into the career of their choice.

Photo courtesy of Camp Exposure

Camp Exposure helps student athletes both on and off the field.

Founded by former Dallas Cowboys player Tyler Patmon, Camp Exposure is coming to The Tailgate on behalf of the Gene and Jerry Jones Family Foundation. You'll get the chance to meet and snap pics with Patmon and Dallas Cowboys mascot Rowdy, while also entering the raffle for a special Cowboys item and watching a clip from the nonprofit's upcoming documentary.

Through your donations and support, Camp Exposure will be able to expand its Educational Sports Camps in different sports and cities while also implementing a youth sports league and mentorship program. The end goal is to secure a physical location to become a fully functional student-athlete academy.

How to buy tickets
Fired up to make a difference in your community? Show up to The Tailgate on October 13 at The Empire Room, where delicious food and drink, fun games, and representatives from all these nonprofits will be waiting.

Get your tickets now, and use promo code DONATE to get 50 percent off your ticket price. Plus, CultureMap will donate 100 percent of your ticket purchase back to these participating charities.

sports charity promoted

Movie Review

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first but not by much

Blumhouse

Five Nights at Freddy's 2

Blumhouse Productions first made their name with the Paranormal Activity series, establishing themselves as a leader in the horror genre thanks to their relatively cheap yet effective movies. In recent years, they’ve added on “soft” horror films likeM3GAN and Five Nights at Freddy’s to draw in a younger audience, with both films becoming so successful that each was quickly given a sequel.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 finds Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) still recovering from the events of the first film, with Abby particularly missing her “friends.” Those friends just so happen to be the souls of murdered children who inhabit animatronic characters at the long-defunct Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, children who were abducted and killed by William Afton (Matthew Lillard).

A new threat emerges at another Freddy Fazbear’s location in the form of Charlotte, another murdered child who inhabits a creepy large marionette. Mike, distracted by a possible romance with Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), fails to keep track of Abby, who makes her way to the old pizzeria and inadvertently unleashes Charlotte and her minions on the surrounding town.

Directed by Emma Tammi and written by Scott Cawthon (who also created the video game on which the series is based), the film tries to mix together goofy elements with intense scenes. One particular sequence, in which the security guard for Freddy Fazbear’s lets a group of ghost hunters onto the property, toes the line between soft and hard horror. That and a few others show the potential that the filmmakers had if they had stuck to their guns.

Unfortunately, more often than not they either soft-pedal things that would normally be horrific, or can’t figure out how to properly stage scenes. The sight of animatronic robots wreaking havoc is one that is simultaneously frightening and laughable, and the filmmakers never seem to find the right balance in tone. Every step in the direction of making a truly scary horror film is undercut by another in which the robots fail to live up to their promise.

It doesn’t help that Cawthon gives the cast some extremely wooden dialogue, lines that none of the actors can elevate. What may work in a video game format comes off as stilted when said by actors in a live-action film. The story also loses momentum quickly after the first half hour or so, with Cawthon seemingly content to just have characters move from place to place with no sense of connection between any of the scenes.

Hutcherson (The Hunger Games series), after being the true lead of the first film, is given very little to do in this film, and his effort is equal to his character’s arc. The same goes for Lail, whose character seems to be shoehorned into the story. Rubio is called upon to carry the load for a lot of the movie, and the teenager is not quite up to the task. A brief appearance by Skeet Ulrich seems to be a blatant appeal to Scream fans, but he and Lillard only underscore how limited this film is compared to that franchise.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first film, but not by much. The filmmakers do a decent job of making the new marionette character into a great villain, but they fail to capitalize on its inherent creepiness. Instead, they fall back on less effective elements, ensuring that the film will be forgettable for anyone other than hardcore Freddy fans.

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Five Nights at Freddy's 2 opens in theaters on December 5.

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Movie Review

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first but not by much