Wit the tour kicking off today, it's time to establish the annual tdf thread w 3-4 talking tour, and the rest posting the same 'how do you watch this shit' lines over and over.

My surface level thoughts:
gc field looks good at the top this yr. 4 real contenders as far as I can see. Hope they all stay healthy and contador or nibali wins an epic one, but I suspect ac is a bit past his prime for these younger pups. Want to see if quintana can look as good as he did at points in 2013 for the whole thing. With the shit show that was sky last year, I'm actually looking forward to a strong froome this yr, though I don't want to see him end up in yellow for much of the tour. That team is lame w the lead. Nibali repeat would be interesting. Mainly want to see a competitive tour down the stretch

Would love top 5 finish for teejay and top 10 for talansky, but have a feeling both bust

Green jersey will likely be a runaway for sagan again, but he won't win many stages. Thing to watch for me will be if kittel can continue to look unbeatable like the Cavendish of 4-5 years ago or if greipel and Cavendish can push him a bit. Maybe even sagan. I'd like to see sagan get 3-4 stages - like his style

Getting goofy with the cobbles again, hoping for no injury to any real guys. Last year was a disaster w injury

Jmerc, 2 decks etc - thoughts?

Alabama based Lindy's a well respected football magazine picked Cats 2 behind all winning No Dakota St.
Other CAA teams # 9 UNH #12 Richmond #17 JMU #21 W&M Cats play them all but UNH. Also play at # 23 Fordham. Sam Houston is # 3. Cats lost a playoff game at home to them without John Robertson. Liberty who Cats beat in a home playoff game is at # 12.
My fear is that national publications are overly impressed because Cats are led by the best QB and best LB in the country. Nova lost a lot of offense. Two very good lineman and a super RB. All three were in NFL camps with Kowalski being signed as an under drafted free agent by the Packers. Lost the QB of the secondary. How do you replace these super players?
BTW Cats were picked # 4 by Sporting News and 5th by Anthlon.

Painter just got offers from
N C St - Clemson Huh!

Will transfer to Westtown next season. Where Ochefu went to school and where Bamba plays.

"fitty" files for bankruptcy. Hard to believe (but not really)

Of John Buckley a former track star from Villanova and his bride sheila are the grandparents of their still to be named 5th grand son. Parents are Beech and Lauren Buckley. Lauren is a former classmate of Jamie Iannacone alum of archmere, Sister in law to my daughter Michelle. Congratulations to the Buckley's and OBriens.

I know this sport is a bit too barbaric for some of you softies with your pink polos and golf hats - but watch the 2 main events on this card and you'll gain a better appreciation for how ridiculous these athletes are. Insane fights.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/so...removal-of-confederate-flag-report/ar-AAbXAw4

Agree........Disagree.........The significance of the flag and what it stands for has long been abolished. Think the country needs to take this step.

Pretty important person for BW's.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/gaming/2015/07/12/nintendo-ceo-satoru-iwata-dies-55/30064255/

Guy from PA (big shock) arrested trying to have sex with horse in AZ in sting operation

Good to see law enforcement moving beyond posing as kids and hookers to catch pervs. Now they're posing as horse pimps to lure these guys in. Even have an undercover video of him inspecting the horse he wants to bang.

In 100 years, we'll look back and laugh at this unjust persecution as the Supreme Court will probably have legalized inter-species marriage by then.

http://archive.livingstondaily.com/...an-traveled-to-Arizona-to-have-sex-with-horse

Battle to Cuse for 2016 some things never change.

What's the best way to get tickets for the UConn game? Nova tix office? UConn tix office? StubHub? Any particular section for Nova fans?

http://nypost.com/2015/07/12/new-book-reveals-john-gottis-role-in-goodfellas-murder/

Looks like it would be a good read.

Good source told me Spellman to xfer to St. Thomas More.

My daughter is turning 10 later this month and the one thing she asked for was an autographed pic of d.o. Anyone have ideas or inside help on how to achieve this? Would really love to do this for her. Thanks

Will Barton signs a 3 year deal with Denver . It appears that signing may cause Denver to not pick up their option on Randy Foye.

Will has done very well for himself #stillbetter

Any word on how DH is doing with the Pistons so far?

Discuss.

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-top100-2015

I tuned in today in the car in the middle of a Temple lovefest, as they were discussing how Rhea Hughes, Mark Farsetta, Rob Charry (all of whom were on the show) all went to Temple and they named others. They also talked about Temple playing Penn State and Notre Dame this year and what a good coach Ruhle (sp?) is. Morganti (who did not go there) said he was always told if you wanted to be good in communications then go to temple and if you wanted to be good in business, go to Villanova. Of course, Charry comes up with the tired refrain that Villanova isn't even in the city, and said "what have they ever won" (although I could tell he said it tongue in cheek.). Morganti said, they've won a lot out there. Then he said he thought Andy Talley was the best football coach in the area and that included Chip Kelly. He praised all the success that Andy has had there. There wasn't much of a response. Nice to hear Morganti say that, though.

I watched bits and pieces of their first game in the afternoon, as they lost to Team Takeover by 20 plus. It seemed like they really struggled to get much of anything together. Tonny Carr is hurt, so without him they struggled.

Stevens and Walker where the top to scorers for Team Final in the first game. Stevens went 5-12, mostly inside. Walker was 4-10 from the feild, including two threes. The game was in no doubt, in my opinion.

Painter was 4-5 from the feild, but only had two rebounds. Being six foot Tenn and having two rebounds is a little concerning.

Next game is at 7:30 against Wings Elite.

I think this needs its own thread. I really don't care that much about the NBA, but have followed the Sixers from a distance. Hinkie has looked like a shrewd gambler despite the lingering Ebiid injury...until last night. Okafor pick makes sense. The rest...not so much. Why not trade a couple later second round picks...or even three second round picks to move up in the round? Why draft four more big men? I think he traded one of them, but he didn't draft a single guard. Does he still have a plan or is he just throwing darts at a board?