What You Waited Five Months For - Is Back

I'm bradley - and it's my job to keep you from being the sucker at the table.

OK, Let's see. LeBron has chosen a new team to play for.

Snooze. 

The Caitlin Clark debacle continues to grow and grow for the WNBA and they still can't figure out what to do with it. 

Meh. 

Spain won the world cup - yeah, name me three players for Spain and three for Argentina. Even if I spot you Messi, you still come up short.

But here's why sports fans have a truly epic reason to smile.

You can smell it. 

It's in the air. 

You can taste it. 

It's so close, you can almost touch it.

The 'it' is the NFL. And it's that time of year again. Time for pro football once again.

Nothing against Lebron - he's as good as today's NBA game gets. But the game is a joke, so I have not a whit of caring whether he ends up in L.A., New York or Sheboygan. 

Soccer is gone, heavens be blessed, hopefully not to return for a long, long time unless we suddenly have a shortage of boredom and need a fix quickly.

No. It's time for a real sport. Not pseudo-football. Not indoor or flag football. And definitely not what the rest of the world likes to call football.

This is the real deal. Passing, running, blocking, tackling, man on man, epic hits and unbelievable athletic feats.

The NFL is gearing up. And I'm ready for it all.

Now don't get me confused with some sort of NFL junkie who wants to know Bo Nix' underwear size. And I won't be 'reporting live from training camp'. I actually did a stint or two like that back when I had hair and believed in unicorns and it was, well - meh. Training camp is long, boring and hot and doesn't serve much of a purpose except to highlight a couple guys who suddenly break from the pack and stand out from the crowd. 

Usually, they're guys who are free agents or low draft choices, completely off everyone's radar screen. They make great stories and sometimes even have a fabulous couple of years. Exception to the rule - Terrell Davis and Rod Smith come to mind. But more end up like Phillip Lindsay.  It doesn't matter - training camp gives them a chance and the determined ones take it.

Camp is important for one other reason - it helps ease the pros back into shape. Being in football shape from the start of Game One through the end of the schedule is a brutal exercise in body management. Even if a player doesn't get hurt critically at some point during the season, the wear and tear is traumatic and takes its toll as they head into January and the hope of post season play. Training camp gives them the chance to groove their body properly - and if they do, they come out surviving the battle at or near the top.

But what it all means, while not being fun, is that football is back in our lives and we don't have to tolerate all the made-up hype over pseudo-sports and manufactured events.  Once the season opens, we can breathe again.

Everything is back in place where it should be. The only thing left to determine is how much of a beating your fantasy team will take.

The pros are in camp. College players are too and both will kick things off for real very soon. All is right with the world. 

So I'm not saying, take down your shrine to Lebron. And if you have a Messi poster on the wall, that's fine. But come on - the real true American sport is about to begin. Get set to fall in love all over again.

I'm bradley - and it's my job to keep you from being the sucker at the table.