A GRIP ON SPORTS • When you were in college, did anyone, other than your parents, really care if you passed your math test? Luckily, when I was trying to get through statistics my freshman year, even my dad was oblivious to my struggles. Not so for Vernon Adams. He takes one final math test as an undergraduate and ESPN is ready to broadcast the results. Which tells you something. About us. Read on.

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• Why are sports so important to everyone? Why do we obsess over who will be Eastern Washington University’s quarterback, or Oregon’s quarterback or whatever? What is it that makes grown men, or grown women, spend an entire Thursday afternoon hitting refresh on their smartphones just to see if one young man has passed one math test? Have we lost all sense of balance when it comes to athletics? Why have I asked so many questions without answering any? The last one is easy. I don’t know the answers. I do know yesterday gnawed at me. And I was one of those grown men hitting refresh all day. Oh, I can make an excuse. It was part of my job. But it is an excuse not an explanation. Whether or not Vernon Adams walked out of that testing room yesterday afternoon an Eastern graduate, it really wasn’t, in the overall picture of the world, important. Interesting, sure. But important? No, not really. To you and me, I mean. To Vernon, yes. Even to Jeff Lockie and Adams’ new Oregon teammates, it probably is as well. But to some guy in Outoftheway, Wash., why should it matter? It gets to the core of being a fan, I guess. That’s the positive spin. We love sports so much – in this case college football – we want to know everything we can. So what’s the tipping point between interested fan and obsessive maniac? And was there any time yesterday when you started to worry you may juts be falling across the line? That you would wake up tomorrow grouped with a bunch of other maniacs? Or did it just seem normal to be monitoring all forms of communication, from social media to news sources, to discover whether or not this one person would pass a test? As I said, I don’t have the answers. I’m not sure Sigmund Freud would have the answers, though if you were smoking a cigar while updating your Twitter search, I’m sure old Sigmund could tell you what that means. As for our nation’s obsession with sports, ... wait, let me rephrase that ... the world’s obsession with sports – have you ever watched an international soccer match? – I’m not sure anyone can explain it well enough to justify yesterday. I wonder if our great-grandparents cared as deeply? I wonder if Joe Louis’ next fight or Babe Ruth stomach ache or Seabiscuit’s hoof history led to discussion after discussion in the barber shop or café or water cooler, their version of social media? Are we the same as they once were, just with different tools? Has sports always held an outsized importance in our culture, in the world’s culture? Sounds like a great subject for a master’s thesis, doesn’t it? Maybe it can be what Vernon Adams works on at Oregon. After all, as our interest in his math test yesterday showed, we care deeply about his academics. And the reason he’s eligible this season – the only reason under NCAA rules – is because he’s going to be a graduate student in Eugene. I wonder if everyone will be checking Twitter in two years to see if Adams received his postgraduate degree. For some reason, I doubt it. Though I don’t have the answer to that question either.

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• WSU: Let’s see. Warm? Check. Really, really warm? Check. Thunder? Check. Lightning? Check. Rain? Check. Yep, it’s late summer. And football preseason camp time. So yesterday was not anywhere near unusual in Lewiston. Jacob Thorpe put up with the changing weather conditions – I wonder if there were any periods of really high winds? – to get to a practice summary on the blog, a story about freshman running back James Williams (pictured), video interviews with Mike Leach, Peyton Pelluer, Jamal Morrow and Williams after practice, as well as a morning post today with links. ... We have a few links from around the conference for you, including an all-important one on DirectTV and the Pac-12 Networks. There is hope by maybe not optimism. ... The Adams news has a bit of importance around Oregon, as you might have guessed. Now we can move forward from dissecting his math skills to scrutinizing his passing technique.

• EWU: Jim Allen examined the Adams’ news from the Eastern Washington perspective as well as covering the Eagles’ second day on the practice field. ... We found a couple of Montana football stories to pass along, one with a WSU connection.

• Preps: Gonzaga Prep’s Kelly Hooper won the PNW Junior Girls’ Amateur Golf Championship yesterday in Nampa, Idaho.

• Indians: Salem-Keiser has gotten better as the Northwest League season has worn on. Exhibit A, as Chris Derrick points out in his blog post, is the Volcanoes play against Spokane, including last night’s 5-0 win at Avista. Chris also has the game story.

• Seahawks: The Hawks open the preseason schedule tonight at CenturyLink against a Peyton Manning-less Denver Bronco team. So what should you watch? Not the Legion of Boom, none of which will be playing. But there is Jesse Williams, the defensive lineman who battled cancer in the offseason. He’ll be out there. As will former Green Beret Nate Boyer (pictured). ... With some injuries, the Hawks made a minor roster adjustment yesterday. ... Of course there is a Kam Chancellor update.

• Mariners: Nelson Cruz is a better hitter at 35 than he was at 25. Who says so? While Cruz does, that’s who. ... Austin Jackson did his part to help Hisashi Iwakuma throw a no-hitter.

• Sounders: The Sounders’ signing of the best midfielder in Austria seems to have been overlooked. ... Portland and Real Salt Lake will meet tomorrow. 

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• Yep, I was questioning myself yesterday afternoon while waiting for the Vernon Adams’ news. Is this how a 58-year-old man really makes ends meet? My answer? Well, yes. It’s more honorable than a lot of jobs, like being Donald Trump’s PR guy or Hillary Clinton’s IT manager. Until later ...

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