🏈 Who’s Ready For Some Football?

The NFL Hall of Fame Game between the Cowboys and Steelers will serve as a reminder that football is back. [View in browser]( [FOX SPORTS INSIDER WITH MARTIN ROGERS] In today’s FOX Sports Insider with Martin Rogers: Thursday night will be an awakening for football fans crawling out from the summer slumber ... we take a look at how to bet tonight’s Cowboys vs. Steelers game ... and we are treated to a must-see video of Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell. It’s taken its sweet time to unfold, this latest chunk of life’s calendar when there was not a single snap of professional football, but the waiting game ends on Thursday night. The moment kickoff comes at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, for the NFL Hall of Fame Game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers, America will start to beat to an entirely different rhythm again, one that won’t cease for the next six months. Overdramatic? Don’t be so sure. Football impacts the country and its citizens, both those who love it and those who don’t, in ways both delicately subtle and as obvious as the pound of a sledgehammer. It can be as much or as little as you want, everything from an utter, all-consuming, life-controlling obsession to a casual interest and conversation point, or even, if you must, a source of annoyance and confusion as to why everyone else likes it so much. I’ve written about how this offseason seemed to drag and linger more than most, and to delve too deeply for an answer as to why would be to pop down a rabbit hole from which there may be no emerging. [STORY IMAGE 1] All we can be certain of is that the season ahead will spout activity just as fast and furious as the summer was lifeless and news-thin, because that’s just how it is when football flows, every year, no matter what. The Hall of Fame Game must be taken in its proper perspective. Sure, it is a preseason game and no more, and opening preseason matchups are a chance to test out your backups more than to give a runout to your stars. “To me, this is what the preseason has always been about,” Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy told reporters. “Your starters and guys you have history with, you can get most of your work done in the practices. This is about the development of your roster, the competition of your roster.” But Thursday night will also be an awakening for football fans, crawling out from the summer slumber, when the temperatures soared but the competitive juices were allowed to chill for a while. [STORY IMAGE 2] A lot of things begin to happen when the Hall of Fame festivities get underway. Your fantasy commissioner, even if they’re one of the inept ones who struggle to even manage the organization of a proper trophy, will probably drop an email that it’s time to begin figuring out a time for the draft. Many fans, with the exception of a handful of diehards who have the whole thing memorized already, will start looking into the schedule in earnest, and figuring out how to plan a trip around it. Football news starts to become a stream again to replace what has been barely a trickle, as rosters start to take shape, egos get tested and everyone gets nicely uptight and nervous. The big names that you’ve barely heard a thing about for months suddenly become front and center again, their every word examined for signs of confidence or otherwise, and a deeper look into whether the locker room is as harmonious as they want you to believe. [STORY IMAGE 3] And more than anything, it is the start of the sweetest time of optimism, when it feels like football is underway yet no one has lost a meaningful game yet, when it is possible to find means to believe that more successful days are ahead, because if there is one thing every NFL coach is good at, it’s how to spin things in a positive light. You can be sure that’s what McCarthy and Steelers counterpart Mike Tomlin will be doing after Thursday, no matter how it plays out in Canton. In Dallas especially, despite a shoulder strain to Dak Prescott that required an MRI, hopes are growing that last season’s 6-10 sting will soon fade. “(With) Prescott, that offense, if the defense can hold up just a little bit, they could potentially get the job done all year,” [former All-Pro Brandon Marshall said on “FS1’s First Things First.”]( “I hate to say this, I am starting to believe in the Cowboys.” Prescott won’t play Thursday and Ben Roethlisberger won’t be spotted either, with Pittsburgh quarterbacking duties shared between Mason Rudolph and Dwayne Haskins. [STORY IMAGE 4] That’s how it is and it’s how we know it at this time of year. Preseason is the teaser before the season, the Hall of Fame Game is the teaser before the teaser. It is not a fully-fledged NFL game and it doesn’t pretend to be. It is a taste. The same broadcast look, the same theme music, the same uniforms and teams that really look quite like the Cowboys and Steelers, even if they’re only a version of what will be put out there in Week 1. It is meant to send us subliminal messages more than smack us into life, to give a gentle reminder not to sleep on this, because before we know it it’ll be February again. It is just one preseason game, but it is here and it is a signal call - that football is back, and that it’s time to get ready. [STORY IMAGE 5] Here’s what others have said ... Grant Gordon, NFL.com: “Preseason or not, it's a moment of meaning as the NFL world and the world in general continue to trek forward in our ongoing journey back to normalcy.” Mike McCarthy, Dallas Cowboys Head Coach: “It’s the shrine of pro football, I think just everything around it. I think being back in that part of the country this time of year, the grass smells a little differently there. I think it’s such a cool experience just to go back there. This is a historical weekend, just with the different classes going in. That’s something we’ll definitely recognize with our team and make sure they understand.” Ari Meirov, Pro Football Focus: “There’s an NFL game on tonight. Who cares who’s playing? Who cares it’s preseason? Football is back.” [IN OTHER WORDS] - The USWNT regrouped to win the bronze, but a team rebuild is needed to recapture world dominance. [FOX Sports Soccer Writer Doug McIntyre has the story](. - Did the Lakers get better? How far can the Bulls go? And where does Miami fit in the East? [Chris Broussard gives his thoughts on a wild week in the NBA](. - Football is back, and that means it’s time to place your bets! [FOX Sports Betting Analyst Sam Panayotovich offers the best bet you can make on tonight’s Cowboys vs Steelers game](. [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED] [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED]( There are those who like their morning coffee … there are those who LOVE their morning coffee … and then there is Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell, who takes it to another level. Check out this video clip of Campbell talking about his morning coffee order from Starbucks. “I’ll get two Venti’s of the Pike with two shots in them,” Campbell said. “That’s how I start the day.” That seems like a LOT of caffeine, but hey, if it works, it works! Thanks for the outstanding content, Coach! [VIEWER'S GUIDE] NFL Preseason Football: Dallas Cowboys vs. Pittsburgh Steelers (FOX, 8 p.m. ET) The 2021 NFL preseason kicks off as the Dallas Cowboys take on the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio. Atlanta Braves at St. Louis Cardinals (ESPN, 8 p.m. ET) Kyle Muller takes the mound for the Atlanta Braves, who go up against Wade LeBlanc and the St. Louis Cardinals. Olympics 2020 (NBC, 8 p.m. ET) Men’s skateboarding, women’s diving, track & field and women’s beach volleyball take center stage at the Tokyo Olympics. [BET OF THE DAY] [BET OF THE DAY] Odds provided by [FOX Bet]( Kansas City Royals at Chicago White Sox: OVER 9.5 Dallas Keuchel takes the mound for the Chicago White Sox, who take on Daniel Lynch and the Kansas City Royals in an AL Central clash. Both of these pitchers have struggled this season. Keuchel sports a 7-4 record with a 4.51 ERA . He has given up nine total runs in his last two starts, both of which resulted in loses for the White Sox. On the other side, Lynch has a 1-3 record and a 6.95 ERA. He pitched against the Sox back in early-May, allowing seven hits and eight earned runs in 0.2 innings of work. Look for this to be a high-scoring game. 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