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As Injuries Mount Around NFL, Health Remains Camp Focus

| July 29th, 2013

Jeremy Maclin and Dan Koppen tore up their knees. Dennis Pitta, one of the best young tight ends in the league, is out for the 2013 campaign and possible beyond. Three NFL stars gone in just three days of NFL training camp.

The discussion has already begun in Bourbonnais. Kyle Long looks tough. J’Marcus Webb looks flat. Corey Wootton and Shea McClellin are ready to make the leap. Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery are diving for grabs up and down the sideline.

Blah.

Blah.

Blah.

Training camp is the low-hanging fruit for sports writers and bloggers. The football fan tries to go clean for the better part of six months and now is knocking on a Baltimore tenement door in hopes of scoring that much-needed fix. “You got the stuff I need, baby.” The media accommodates, now with the technological absurdities that are Twitter camp play-by-plays.

None of it means anything. Nothing the Bears are showing the media and fans is real. What matters is not seeing the following words scrolled across the Twitter feed: carted off. Camp and the preseason is a survival game and the goal is to reach Soldier Field and the Cincinnati Bengals with the bulk of your roster intact.

So enjoy the thrilling Cutler completes pass to Jeffery down right sideline. Crowd cheers. Tweets. I will sit and wait for the most important Tweet of every session. Practice. Over.