Photo credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Photo credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Football finally returns… if you consider mostly closed-off-to-the-public practices and Training Camp Central on CSN brought to you by Audi and Infinity of Willow Grove Where Great Things Happen to be football. But it’s nice to be reading, writing and talking about guys who are playing for a team that actually has a chance of accomplishing something other than selling off its valuable assets.

Let’s hit it.

 

But first, a word from our sponsors:

Voila_Capture 2014-07-28_09-34-12_AM

Fight. NOW IN GREEN. Get one.

More. Already have all of our shirts? May I recommended checking out Philly Phaithful.

Perfect. Meet Roy Halladay and Jim Bunning at the Philly Sports Card & Memorabilia Show at the Valley Forge Casino Resort on Saturday, September 27. Details and tickets here.

Tickets. Affordable Eagles ticket on Crossing Broad Tickets.

 

The roundup:

Cutting through all the noise of training camp is great writing and in-depthery from who but W.B. Mason Peter King. He visited the Eagles and Chip Kelly on Saturday and came away with some great quotes. A sampling from your should-clink link of the morning:

I’ve had only two extended conversations with Kelly since he was named coach of the Eagles 19 months ago. To say I know him well would be folly. But I’m starting to get a feel for him. Before his first training camp practice of the season on Saturday, we spent time in his office, and when we parted, I thought how much he reminded me of Jimmy Johnson when Johnson entered the league 25 years ago. Respectful of the other coaches and teams, but they aren’t going to dictate what he’s going to do. Totally confident that his style will work in the NFL. Unlike Johnson, Kelly’s not brash on the outside. Like Johnson, he knows deep down his way will win. Johnson brought a small, fast defense into a league that was going bigger and bigger. It worked. Kelly brings a fast-break offense from Oregon, and in the second half of the season, with different personnel groupings and a quarterback who could keep it all straight, the team went 7-1.

On not seeming emotional—ever. “Oh, I get pissed off. Yeah. I have a lot of friends who are Navy SEALs, and I respect what they do. Part of their ethos is ‘I don’t advertise the nature of my work, nor do I seek recognition for my actions.’ We all have jobs to do. We’re not in this to see our names in the paper or have people say good things about you. Or we shouldn’t be. I love practice. I love being out on the field. I love game day. The sound bytes and ESPN and all those other things, that’s not of any interest to me.”

We’re an 11-5 season away from a lifetime pass for Mr. Kelly.

Chip will once again make his Monday morning appearances on the WIP Morning Show.

David Murphy with another solid article (two in a row!), this one on Ryan Howard, whose home run yesterday changed the narrative because writers are easy like that. Here’s RyHow:

That last part: Those people, including you, right now, looking at Ryan Howard, looking at his life the way nobody has ever looked at yours, and not feeling a shred of shame about doing so. What if there were 30,000 Ryan Howards studying you? What if there were 30,000 Ryan Howards watching your work day, judging your production, writing stories about your diamonds and your chains and your doorknobs, wondering whether you are worth the salary that your employer is paying you, wondering if somebody might be able to do your job better? What if you lived in a city full of Ryan Howards, and everywhere you went, you felt their stares as you passed? What if you started to think about what those Ryan Howards were thinking. Hey, isn’t that the guy who used to be the best at what he did? How would that feel?

Do you want that?

“Want to trade places?” Howard asked. “Want to see what it’s like?”

Yes, yes I do, Ryan. The moat comes with rafts, right?

Family GuySimpsons crossover episode. I’m sure all the snobby-Simpsons fans are just thrilled.

Bob Brookover doesn’t like camp at NovaCare because you can’t see players destroy and injure each other the way they did during the Reid era:

You also will not see any live tackling, a staple during the Andy Reid era that made training-camp practices at Lehigh University intense and entertaining. Morning hitting sessions at Lehigh were an event unlike any other during a football season. With bleachers on three fields, fans could watch the game they love at close to the speed and intensity it is played during the regular season.

“I was here for the old CBA, and I felt like Coach Reid was the hardest coach in America during training camp,” linebacker Brandon Graham said. “My first year, I didn’t know if I wanted to play football anymore. The new CBA has a lot more rules, and we get all we can out of it. Coach Kelly has done a great job adjusting to it. We still get in good work, but we just don’t have to do it twice a day.”

I think we’re going to look back on the Reid era the way we remember the cigarette era– like a time before we were enlightened enough to realize that that was TOTALLY STUPID.

Big bear spotted in the Ukraine. Actually, Leighton played for Donetsk last year (perhaps you’ve heard of the city lately) and tried to sign with Sochi this year. But, in true Leighton style, he blew his chance because he was sick during training camp.

I’m thinking of buying a stand desk because sitting 10 hours per day has turned my posture into that of a long-necked Crane and my lower back has the structural integrity of a lookout tower build atop a ball pit. Can anyone talk me out of getting this one?

If the Phillies score five runs in a game, you’ll get Free Papa John’s. So, never:

via reader Doug

via reader Doug

The Phils need better ingredients, better players, Papa John’s.

They’re going to botch this, aren’t they? Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe:

The Phillies have been wishy-washy on whether they will make lefthander Cole Hamels available. Hamels could land the biggest haul if the Phillies are serious about rebuilding their farm system, then using the $90 million savings on signing mid-range free agents.

The Phillies want four or five prospects for Hamels (I wrote three last week and was told by a Phillies official I was too conservative) and it doesn’t appear anyone would pay that type of bounty. Around the industry, the Phillies are being perceived as asking too much for their players. The Phillies are saying “make us a fair deal.”

Noooooooo:

via (@BFit70)

via (@BFit70)

Someone found President Obama’s golf ball in the woods.

Roy Halladay is pandering to the Penguin.

 

CBGA Tour

“The Open Championship” at Lederach Golf Club. Happening now.