Yahoo Sports AM: Let the Games begin

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🚨 Headlines

🇺🇸 Flag bearer: Tennis star Coco Gauff will carry the American flag for Team USA alongside LeBron James at Friday’s Opening Ceremony.

🏀 Record viewership: Saturday’s WNBA All-Star Game drew 3.44 million viewers on ABC, making it the third-most watched broadcast in league history behind only two games from its first-ever opening weekend in 1997.

⚾️ Skenes’ first loss: Pirates rookie sensation Paul Skenes (6-1) finally took his first loss, though even that he did in stellar fashion, striking out eight Cardinals in a career-best 8.1 innings while allowing just four hits and two runs.

🏀 USA 84, Germany 57: The Team USA women bounced back from their loss in the WNBA All-Star Game with a resounding victory over Germany in their final pre-Olympics exhibition.

⛳️ Vice captain: Team USA Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley has named Webb Simpson — the 2012 U.S. Open champ and member of three Ryder Cup teams — as his vice captain.

⚽️ Why is Olympic men’s soccer a JV event?

The Olympic men’s soccer group stage kicks off today — but don’t expect to see the world’s top players taking the pitch.

From Yahoo Sports’ Henry Bushnell:

Kylian Mbappé really wanted to play at the Paris Olympics. Lionel Messi reportedly did too. But neither will, because they, like most men’s soccer stars, are victims of an age-old power struggle domineered by the sport’s global governing body, FIFA.

The struggle is the reason organizers impose two key restrictions on each men’s Olympic roster:

1. All but three players must be 23 years old or younger.

2. No matter the player’s age, his professional club isn’t required to grant him permission to play at the tournament.

The second rule spoiled Mbappé’s dream. “I’ve always said that the Games in Paris are special, and I wanted to be there,” the native Parisian said in March. But Real Madrid refused to release him.

Dozens of other clubs have also declined to grant necessary permissions. And so, of the world’s top 100 players, only two — Argentina’s Julián Álvarez and Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi — will be present.

The rules make Olympic men’s soccer something of a junior varsity competition. And they’re in place because FIFA doesn’t want the Games — or any other soccer tournament — to rival its World Cup.

Good news for Team USA? The upside of the Olympic roster limitations is that they can be an equalizing force, one that could give the U.S. hope of medaling.

The USMNT, of course, has never been past the quarterfinals of a modern World Cup; it can’t measure up to France, Spain or Argentina. But its JV team could compete with other JV squads around the world.

The Americans will be expected to advance from the group stage and could contend for a medal in their first Olympics appearance since 2008.

Go deeper: Henry explores the complex rules and nuanced history surrounding Olympic men’s soccer. Fascinating stuff…

What to watch: Team USA plays host France in today’s opener (3pm ET, USA/Peacock). Here’s the roster.

🥇 We already have an Olympics scandal

The Canadian Olympic Committee has apologized after a “non-accredited” member of the women’s soccer staff allegedly used a drone to spy on New Zealand.

Context: New Zealand staffers saw the drone during a training session and reported it to local police, which led to the operator being detained. The incident was then reported to the IOC’s integrity unit.

Speaking of scandals… British dressage star Charlotte Dujardin, a six-time Olympic medalist, will not compete because of a video that allegedly shows her mistreating a horse.

🏈 NFL training camp: Five faces in new places

All 32 NFL teams have officially begun training camp. Here are five veterans who switched teams this offseason that are worth keeping an eye on.

1. Kirk Cousins (QB, Falcons): Atlanta hasn’t had a winning season since 2017 amid Matt Ryan’s waning years and various unimpressive replacements. Cousins was playing the best ball of his career before tearing his Achilles last season, and should be healthy entering Week 1.

2. Saquon Barkley (RB, Eagles): Philly’s run game could be lethal with the pairing of Barkley and Jalen Hurts. And even with Jason Kelce’s retirement, this should be the best offensive line the 2018 ROY has ever played behind.

3. Hollywood Brown (WR, Chiefs): The speedster struggled to find consistency in Baltimore’s run-heavy offense, and Kansas City struggled to find receivers last season who could reliably catch the ball. This should be a nice match.

4. Danielle Hunter (DE, Texans): The four-time Pro Bowler with the Vikings joins reigning Defensive ROY Will Anderson Jr. to form one of the league’s best pass-rushing duos.

5. Christian Wilkins (DT, Raiders): Speaking of dominant defensive duos, Wilkins (6-foot-4, 310 pounds) and Maxx Crosby (6-foot-5, 255 pounds) will form a fearsome tandem of their own in Las Vegas.

🎧 Fantasy Forecast: 12 training camp questions

📆 July 24, 1983: The Pine Tar Incident

41 years ago today, George Brett unleashed one of baseball’s most memorable tirades after being ruled out for having too much pine tar on his bat.

Successful protest: Brett’s ninth inning, go-ahead blast against the Yankees was overturned due to excessive pine tar, resulting in a Royals loss. But Kansas City successfully protested* the game, which resumed a month later and ended in a 5-4 Royals win.

More on this day:

• 🚴‍♂️ 2005: Lance Armstrong won his record-extending seventh consecutive Tour de France and immediately retired from the sport. Seven years later, all of his wins were stripped for doping violations.

• 🏀 2008: Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman played in a game for the Detroit Shock at age 50, breaking her own record as the oldest player in WNBA history, which she’d previously set at age 39.

*A rare reversal: This was one of just 15 successful protests in MLB history in which the game was resumed at the point of the protest, and it was the eighth and most recent instance in which the protesting team went on to win.

📺 Watchlist: Let the Games begin

The Olympics kick off today with men’s soccer and rugby sevens* group stages, and the U.S. is playing host France in both.

• Rugby: USA vs. France (10:30am ET, USA/Peacock); USA vs. Fiji (2:30pm, Peacock)

• Soccer: USA vs. France (3pm, USA/Peacock)

More to watch:

• ⚽️ MLS: MLS All-Stars vs. Liga MX All-Stars (8pm, Apple) … Free to watch.

• ⚾️ MLB: Mets at Yankees (7pm, ESPN)

• 🏀 TBT: Round of 16 (FS1/FS2)

*Faster format: Rugby sevens is played with just seven players a side (instead of 15) and with seven-minute halves (instead of 40-minute halves), but on the same size field as the traditional version of the sport.

🏀 WNBA trivia

Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese are locked in a tight race for WNBA Rookie of the Year.

Question: Who won the award last year?

Answer at the bottom.

🎓 It’s a new day in Big Ten country

Oregon celebrated its first Big Ten Media Days by parking a massive inflatable duck on White River in downtown Indianapolis.

Big 18: The Ducks joined the Big Ten alongside USC, UCLA and Washington, giving the conference 18 teams spanning both coasts. It still doesn’t feel real… but it is.

Trivia answer: Aliyah Boston (Fever)

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