Josh from Playa Majagual, Nicaragua

I saw a number of articles before last week’s suite of preseason games relating to odds on the “best bets” for every game. Have we really devolved that far as a society that one, anyone would be stupid enough to bet their hard-earned cash on a game with literally no discernable predictability, and two, it is legal for corporations to willfully defraud the populous of their savings by offering asinine betting opportunities? Shame on you, NFL, for enabling this!

The NFL doesn’t enable the betting industry. The industry itself and its patrons do that on their own. The NFL does take all the advertising and sponsorship dollars it can, though. Even if gambling weren’t illegal at Bushwood, I’d be staying as far away from these scoreboard-meaningless games as possible. Asinine for is a good word for August.

Patrick from East Dubuque, IL

What will be the hardest for Jordan Love to regain full use of his thumb … handing off with left hand?

Based on when he practiced with the thumb taped up last Monday, I’d say that’s it. He didn’t seem to have any issues with the exchange from center, which I thought was a good sign. On Saturday, he also didn’t have that full wrap/cast on his left hand from Thursday anymore.

Thomas from Little Chute, WI

Do you think Jordon Love’s thumb will be a season-long problem?

The surgery was done precisely to avoid that.

After looking at some photos posted on this website of players walking to the practice field for the combined Packers-Colts practice, I have to ask: Is the Colts’ practice field a meadow in the middle of a forest?

It’s a massive clearing bordered on one side by a grove of trees. It’s a neat spot. Nowhere to hide from the heat and bugs, but it’s quite the setup.

Kerry from Lakewood Ranch, FL

The first two games are bigger this year than usual. One a divisional game and the other a conference game. They are at home with nine road games to play in the next 15. Not many teams make the playoffs losing their first two games at home. And the Packers aren’t in the NFC South. The sense of urgency is obvious. Am I looking at this wrong?

Not at all. I don’t want to speak for LaFleur, but I suspect his original preseason plan – which could always change based on the injury situation – of playing the starters some in the third game was at least in part based on the two-games-in-five-days-against-contenders start to the season. The implications of starting 2-0 are larger than normal, as are those of starting 0-2.

With all the injuries piling up, is there a concern the wounded will be rusty for the Lions game from the non-practice reps for several weeks prior to that game? It sure worries me!

It depends on when those players get back to practice. After the roster decisions are made, there are a couple of practices heading into Labor Day weekend. Then the players get some time off, come back for a practice on the holiday, get their mandated Tuesday off, and then the usual three days (Wed-Fri) of practices during game week. That’s a lot of practice time to get back in the swing of things, if they’re back during that last week of the month.

Wow! 14 in a row for the Crew sure was amazing! Now they need to avoid a letdown and a long losing streak the rest of the year. This team just never quits.

What an incredible run. It reached the indescribable stage over the weekend and almost continued with another late-inning comeback Sunday. Here’s to hoping it eventually counts for so much more than a summer memory.

While it’s not Insider Inbox romances, there are a fair number Packers-fan-love-stories that have their origins at Will’s Northwoods Inn, in Chicago. A friend and I both met our wives over a Miller Lite and a Packers game at Will’s.

A beer, a G and a Cupid’s arrow. Sounds like a Netflix series.

“The crowd got a kick out of it, no pun intended.” No pun intended my foot. No pun intended.

Ha, nicely done. We can both see ourselves out. Happy Monday.