A GRIP ON SPORTS • Do you enjoy football? If the answer is no, then I suggest you spend the, I don’t know, next six months or so in Tahiti or Bora-Bora or somewhere similar. Read on.

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• See, we already are awash in football stories. There were three major storylines from Seahawks camp alone yesterday, and we are only in the first week. Plus, this is the week college football starts around here, which adds another layer. And we’re only a couple weeks from high school players beginning to hit the field. So football is going to dominate the landscape. It’s a given. Nothing we can do about it. Unless we dedicate ourselves to day after day of cross country. Or volleyball. And no one, other than a few people I can picture in my mind right now and expect to hear from later on Twitter, wants that. So football it is.

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• WSU: The Cougars begin camp Sunday in Lewiston, so expect this week to be filled with items concerning their upcoming season. For example, there is this season preview from the Los Angeles Daily News. ... If you are a DirecTV subscriber, I bet you have some hope these days.

• Idaho: The Vandals open football camp Wednesday, so Sean Kramer decided to give us a post filled with key storylines for UI heading in.

• Shock: Portland defeated Las Vegas last night in Portland, which means the Thunder can still make the playoffs.

• Indians: The All-Star break is upon the Northwest League (the league's best will meet the Pioneer League all-stars Tuesday night at Avista), and the Indians will take a two-game winning streak into it after yesterday’s 4-1 win over Eugene. Chris Derrick has the game story and a blog post on the bullpen’s big day.

• Seahawks: Did we mention there were three main storylines from yesterday? There is the continuing coverage of Bobby Wagner’s mega-contract extension, making him one of the most highly paid linebackers in the league. And that’s after he wondered if he could make it in the NFL. Yes he could. ... Then there’s the fallout from that contract, and the one Russell Wilson signed. The Hawks had to make some cuts somewhere. It turned out to be defensive tackle Tony McDaniel (pictured) and his more than $3 million against the cap. ... Kam Chancellor is still not in camp, which means Seattle is a little thin at safety. That’s not necessarily the reason the Hawks made a trade for a cornerback, but it must have played some small part in it. Richard Sherman has some thoughts on Chancellor’s situation, while Pete Carroll, always Mr. Upbeat, talks about a lot of things.

• Mariners: Hisashi Iwakuma (pictured) was nearly perfect, until giving up a game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth. But that didn’t deter this scrappy group of Mariners. They scored three runs in the 11th – Logan Morrison had the big hit – in a 4-1 win at Minnesota. That gave The M’s a split of the four-game series. ... With J.A. Happ traded and Roenis Elias ineffective in Tacoma, the M’s will go with Vidal Nuno in a spot start Tuesday. Does anyone have any idea what happened to James Paxton? It is August. How bad could a finger be?

• Sounders: Two of the Sounders’ western challengers, Portland and San Jose, played to a scoreless draw yesterday. I watched a little Arsenal/Chelsea in the morning and than a bit of this match in the afternoon. It’s like watching the NBA and then turning on a college game. What a difference.

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• And that’s our Monday morning report. I thought I was going to be back on the radio this afternoon but circumstances changed. I am now scheduled to make a guest appearances on the Patchin, Lukens and Osso Show on Wednesday and Friday. It’s been a long time, I wonder if I’ll be able to talk intelligently? (Little voice in the background saying “why should you be able to do that now? ...”) Until later ...

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