The worst thing you could be during NFL training camps is "the schedule." Because everybody seems to be ahead of you.

Injured veterans? Ahead of schedule with rehab. Skill players adapting to a new system? Way ahead of schedule. And rookies acclimating themselves to the pro game? They're so far ahead of schedule, you can barely see them.

Everybody will be reportedly ahead of schedule. And you shouldn't believe a word of it. Camps aren't just a way for teams to evaluate their players and get them ready for the upcoming season. It's kind of a preseason for their spin machine. Coach-speak needs to be fine-tuned and tested, and players and agents have to say something to either justify a new contract or keep themselves off the roster bubble. Likewise, GMs and owners need to validate the draft choices they made several weeks ago.

Oh, let's not forget television, radio, print and Internet media. They have to produce content because...well, just because. They want to be your go-to source during the regular season, so they need to create a buzz now, whether they have something to actually report or not.

And if it's the hometown paper or radio outlets, they need to establish a tone for the upcoming season. And most of the time, that tone is "whatever makes the team look good." Otherwise they might not get the access they want when the games start. You'll have a few independent personalities in each city, but for the most part the media are summer interns for the team's public relations department.

As a fan, that's all just fine. Nobody wants to hear doom and gloom when everybody is 0-0. Why not focus on the positives? Some teams will over-achieve this season, and maybe yours will be one of them. In the summertime, hope springs eternal.

It's a different story as a fantasy owner. All this candy-coated spin is just empty calories in your team's diet. You need real information, and you don't need the distracting noise of misguided optimism. So what should you do?

Pretty simple: Ignore it. From a fantasy owner's perspective, anyway. Stick to the fantasy outlets you trust (hint: The new Fantasy Index is out) just to get acclimated to the new landscape, and let the local and national media blather about nothing until they have something real to report. At least the players are pretending to play football in August. Until then, you'd get more football insight and entertainment from watching the Canadian Football League, which is already playing its regular season.

(Did you know that teams have only three downs in the CFL to get a first down instead of four? They run a couple of plays and trot out the punter if they don't make it. Think of how much time the Rams and Jets would save if they abandoned the third down play that probably won't work anyway. It could shave several minutes off their upcoming games).

Don't let your excitement for the upcoming fantasy season direct you to quotes and opinion in July that won't help you in September. In fact, if you digest it for weeks at a time it could imprint garbage information onto your brain, which will hurt you on draft day.

Everything right now is fluid; coaches don't even know the answers to your most pressing questions. As a fan, keep an eye on teams rounding into shape. But keep the other on whatever interests you until there's actually enough timely news to warrant your undivided attention.