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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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If it’s Thursday, the weekend must already be starting

Tom Brady’s jersey is the No. 3 seller, behind only Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota, despite his troubles. (Associated Press)
Tom Brady’s jersey is the No. 3 seller, behind only Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota, despite his troubles. (Associated Press)

A GRIP ON SPORTS • One of the weird things about autumn: The weekend begins tonight. How? Football's weekend begins tonight, thus the entire weekend begins. The NFL has its opener. High schools are playing. Somewhere on channel 873 or so, there is a college game. So settle in and enjoy. Read on.

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• The reason football has branched out more and more – there seems to be a college game on 24/7 these days – is simple: they draw. Eyeballs on television, butts in seats. So there is a football game to watch whenever you want – almost. But Thursday night is the unofficial start of the football weekend. The NFL puts a game on, which means there is one less game to follow Sunday on the RedZone Channel, mankind’s second-greatest invention. (The first? I’m leaning toward Extra Toasty Cheez-Its right now, but that’s a personal preference.) And high schools in the area have been playing on Thursday nights since the Stone Age, which, in football parlance, means before the spread offense became popular. So you have a choice. You can sit in your living room and watch Tom Brady flash his billion-dollar smile at the camera or you can watch two groups of young men learn about adversity and success on the Albi turf. At least there are choices. A few weeks ago you probably would have had to spend your Thursday night watching re-runs of “Hard Knocks.”

• You want to know reason No. 394 why it’s tough to travel east and win a college football game? Today’s a good example. The Cougars are practicing this morning, Thursday morning, and then they will get on a plane and head for New Jersey. It’s not a short flight. They’ll settle into their palatial Jersey hotel – someday I’ll share my tale of spending Thanksgiving at a Newark Holiday Inn – and then spend Friday acclimating themselves to the altitude. OK, that last line was a joke. All they get to do Friday is attend meetings and hold a walk-through at Rutgers’ stadium. Then it’s Saturday and game day. Afterward, win or lose, they clean up, eat and head back to Pullman. There is practice Sunday night and classes Monday. Glamorous, isn’t it?

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• WSU: If you are wondering where Jacob Thorpe’s morning post is, because you need his story links, well, I sort of explained it in the paragraph above. The Cougars are practicing right now. Jacob is at practice. He’ll combine his practice report with his morning post and put it up when he can. In the meantime, I have some links for you. We’ll start with Jacob’s stuff from yesterday, a practice report and the transcript from his live chat. Then we’ll move on to his story in today’s paper about the ticket crunch one of the coaches is facing. Oh, he also has his Pac-12 picks. ... The Times looks at the failings of the defense last week and what changes might be in store this one. ... Former Cougar coach Mike Price (pictured) heads the list of honorees for this year’s Inland Northwest Sports Hall of Fame class. Also included: The Review’s John Blanchette, the least athletic of all the inductees (though he was a heck of rebounder back in the day). ... Even Portland State’s NFL alums are excited about their win over the Cougars. ... WSU is one of five Pac-12 teams that must bounce back from a season-opening loss. ... It looks as if the conference and DirecTV are coming to some sort of agreement, though it will change the model by which the Pac-12 Networks have been operating. ... The Cougars are last in this conference power ranking as well. ... Playing quarterback is a tough reality, even virtually.

• EWU: It’s Thursday, I think. Yes, it is. I know because Jim Allen has his Big Sky notebook in the paper. He also has a post this morning with links from around the conference.

• Whitworth: The Pirates had little trouble with Lewis-Clark State in a volleyball match.

• Preps: Who is going to win this weekend? Who knows, but Greg Lee and Sam Adams try to pick the winners. ... North Central has won nine consecutive state boys’ cross country titles. Can they make it double digits this season? Greg has a feature on the guy who hopes to lead them there. That pairs nicely with this area preview. ... Greg loves football season. It’s his favorite.

• Seahawks: Things got ugly yesterday between Kam Chancellor and the Hawks. Chancellor told the NFL Network all he wanted was for the Seahawks to meet him halfway, but that halfway mark was passed a long time ago. Chancellor said he wanted $4 million moved from 2017 to the 2016 contract. OK, half of that would be $2 million, right? Well, Chancellor said the Hawks had offered $3.1 million and they wouldn’t budge. They were being, in his words as quoted by the NFL Networks, “petty.” Seems like they have been “accommodating” or “flexible” to me. Even Mr. Positive, Pete Carroll, seems a bit frustrated. ... The Hawks think their roster and two-deep is the best ever, even without Chancellor. ... The guy taking Chancellor’s spot, Dion Bailey, is ready to show what he’s got. ... There is a stacked defensive line in front of him. ... Russell Wilson has a new house. It’s nicer than your house (except yours Mr. Gates, sir). ... Maybe that’s Wilson’s way to get over the Super Bowl loss. ... Or maybe he needs the place to impress Jimmy Graham. ... Richard Sherman uses the term "hanky-panky." ... Will success spoil Seattle?

• Mariners: It had been a long time since Vidal Nuno had won a start. If he had pitched like he did last night more often, however, the streak would have ended long ago. As it is, he and the Mariners defeated Texas 6-0. ... Steven Baron has toiled in the minor leagues a long time, honing his craft and finally making the big league roster.

• Sounders: Seattle is getting better but Saturday’s match in San Jose is crucial. ... Portland and Kansas City played a scoreless draw last night, pulling them into a tie with the Sounders in the standings.

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• There are many weeks I miss traveling with the Cougars on football weekends. This isn’t one of them. The last two times I’ve flown into Newark, something happened to my luggage. I blame Paulie Walnuts. Until later ...



Vince Grippi
Vince Grippi is a freelance local sports blogger for spokesman.com. He also contributes to the SportsLink Blog.

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