Evenin’, y’all. Mom’s on her plane, so it’s back atcha with the north-of-the-border open thread topics.

NFL News:

• Arian Foster landed in Miami. It’s reportedly a one-year deal worth $1.5 million with $2 million in incentives.
• Justin Durant landed in Dallas, thanks to Rolando McLain’s suspension. Even though it’s most likely a minimum deal with incentives, it’s still one more year towards pension eligibility.
• The Bills are reportedly talking to Reggie Bush. Given Karlos Williams’ suspension, it makes sense to have a solid veteran on staff, and is a much more plausibe excuse that simply signing him so Rex could ask about Kim’s feet.
• A fairly long piece on Matt Forte talks about a lot of things. What I find fascinating is that, even now, he stands by Jay Cutler.
• Eddie Lacy has had to go back on the P90X just before training camp opens. My question is, Is he taking weight off to make the team, or making room for his Green Bay diet?
• Charles Tillman retired today after 13 seasons. He will probably get some votes for a gold jacket.

It happened during my time off, but I’d like to think that John Elway tricked Pat Bowlen into saying, “This one’s for Von!”

Finally, not football related, but definitely geared towards the Patriots, St. Louis Cardinals former scouting director Chris Correa was sentenced to 46 months federal time in Houston for accessing the Astros computer network while working for the Cardinals. It would only be a better story if it happened to the Yankees or Red Sox. Florio chooses this instance to remind his loyal “readers” that the NFL has warned teams and employees to never, never do this, because it might result in more federal scrutiny of League practices. And we all know how Rog treats people who bring The Shield into disrepute.

There’s no sports of note tonight. Mets vs Cubs is the national game on ESPN. There’s only the Republican Convention, and all the earnest ridiculousness that goes along with it. There has already been one attempt to free delegates to vote freely, but that was suppressed. Procedural arguing – the hallmark of the Republican Party!

And such presences. Live broadcasts! Colbert + Jon Stewart! The Daily Show all four days! If you want the mud, Gawker has you covered. Their story on “Bikers for Trump” has a decidely ‘Altamont meets The Factory’ flavour to it.

I enjoy the fact that the police are so spooked, they actually asked the Governor (who, remember, was once a candidate for this fiasco) to suspend the state’s “open carry” laws. But tennis balls have been banned, so the WTA won’t be able to attend.

A sideshow I’m watching – what will Fox promote? They haven’t been totally pro-Trump, but with Roger Ailes reportedly on his way out, how will that tint the coverage? So much drama.

Yessir – it promises to be a fun five days.