Two big highlights of the day:

1. All teams have their main training camps opening today or tomorrow; and
2. The Hall of Fame Game is one week today.

Funnily, the increasingly shorter days seem a little bit brighter.

NFL News:

• Problems on the elite front: Joe Flacco, depending on which story you read, may miss between 7 days and 6 weeks of training camp. It seems he’s got a bulging disc.
  • If he misses all of training camp, he’d still be ready in time for Week-1, so get the excuses ready.
  • Elite backup might be coming in the form of Colin Kaepernick, who is being cons– … you know what? I’m just going to stop right there, beause we all know it’s not happening.
• Ravens center John Urschel, whom most only remember from this commercial

is retiring from football so he can finish his pursuit of his Ph.D in Mathematics. The other guy in the commercial, the one who is constantly hurt, will continue his career. Because he’s a MAN, not some math nerd!

• Aaron Rodgers admits to being back in love with football again.
  • It’s really just a puff piece about how he’s more motivated going into the season, and has the requisite comparisons to Tom Brady & his diet & training regimen.
  • Leave it to ESPN, however, to go the extra mile and ask the Dongslinger for a couple of quotes. Because nothing says “I’ve moved on” than bringing up the guy who held the other one back.

• RGIII now knows how Colin Kaepernick feels, because the Chargers traded for Cardale Jones rather than sign him after his “successful” workout.
  • The exchange was a conditional 7th round draft pick, if you’re scoring at home.

• The Steelers signed Alejandro Villanueva to a four-year, $24 million extension.
  • I’m guessing he now thinks Pittsburgh is safer than three tours of Afghanistan.
    • At least Trump can claim he helped one ex-soldier keep a job.

• The Jets are the winners in the Lucky Whitehead waiver sweepstakes.
  • The loser? The guy nicknamed “Lucky”, who might be better off pursuing the grievance than getting destroyed by AFC East defences.

Finally, in the realm of puffiest of puff pieces, and just a day after their piece on the intricacies of being Tom Brady’s dietitian, you have the MMQB talking about the time the Seattle Mariners brought in a 17 year-old Tom Brady for a baseball tryout, and him trying on Ken Griffey’s jersey in the empty locker room.

• Turns out, Dreamboat was a legitimate catching prospect. He was even drafted in the 18th round by the Expos.
  • During a meet & greet when the Expos were playing in San Francisco, the scouts had Brady meet some of the players, and this apparently happened:

Brady was sitting at a locker, holding court with six or seven Expos asking him questions. “We were telling him,” Santangelo says, “ ‘Why would you make $800 a month in the minor leagues when you can be the quarterback at the University of Michigan? You’re a good-looking guy, you can probably have a lot of fun off the field, too.’ … We told him: ‘Go play football at Michigan! Are you kidding me?’ ”

• So, that cemented Brady’s decision to go play football. The scout’s reaction?

“If I could’ve signed this guy, I would’ve changed the entire history of the NFL,” Hughes told his friends. “The NFL would’ve never been the same. Who would’ve known?”

If it’s still active when the thread goes live, please click through to the twitter feed & note how the Jaguras managed to burn themselves with HAWT TAEKS!

Reply with a GIF to describe how excited you are for #JaxCamp17 pic.twitter.com/HrahemnZyq

— Jacksonville Jaguars (@Jaguars) July 27, 2017

It’s not football-related, but, c’mon…WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

WOOOOOO!!! It's official… Our #30for30, #NatureBoy, on @RicFlairNatrBoy will debut November 7th on ESPN.

Details: https://t.co/xRepS0jTGC pic.twitter.com/Pua4OZcdK3

— 30 for 30 (@30for30) July 26, 2017

Tonight’s sports:

• CFL:
  • Montreal at Winnipeg – 7:30PM | ESPN2 / TSN
• MLB:
  • Rays at Yankees – 7:00PM | Sportsnet
• Women’s Soccer:
  • U.S. vs. Australia – 9:00PM | ESPN

Fear not, fellow Commentists. For while there may not be much to entertain this evening, tomorrow there be sexiness, and then the weekend. And, soon – THE GAMES!