John Blanchette

SEATTLE – Now on sale at the Seattle Seahawks team store: khaki pants and rumpled navy hoodies, essentials from The Pete Carroll Collection. Got to beat that old Pork Chop Womack replica jersey you used to wear on Sundays, right?

SEATTLE – Throwing an interception on the first play? Four offensive snaps in the first quarter? No first downs in the first 24 minutes – and then only by penalty? This is what the Seattle Seahawks bought with the $35 million they gave Pete Carroll to remake the franchise? The turnaround may be painstaking, but it certainly wasn’t Sunday afternoon. After watching the NFC West favorite San Francisco 49ers penetrate the Seattle 10-yard line on each of their first three possessions, the Seahawks dramatically flipped both the mood and momentum and stormed to a 31-6 victory at Qwest Field in the opener of season No. 35.

SEATTLE – Now on sale at the Seattle Seahawks team store: khaki pants and rumpled navy hoodies, essentials from The Pete Carroll Collection. Got to beat that old Pork Chop Womack replica jersey you used to wear on Sundays, right? Does it ever. Beats it badly. Just the way the San Francisco 49ers were beaten Sunday in the Seahawks’ 35th season opener, a turn of events few outside of the war room down at the team’s Renton headquarters saw coming. Despite playing the fashionable pick to win the NFC West – if there is such a thing as fashionable in that Village of the Damned – and running exactly four offensive plays the first quarter, the Seahawks rolled 31-6 and 67,044 at Qwest Field rocked. If it wasn’t enough to make you completely buy into the Culture of Pete immediately, at least you had to acknowledge that, hey, maybe he has something here beyond the arm-pumping and Beverly Hills abrazo – though there was certainly plenty of that even late into the coach’s first game on the Seahawks sideline, as quarterback Matt Hasselbeck reported.

PULLMAN – So what do you think – a contract extension for the head coach? (Fan base will detonate in 3 … 2 … 1 …)

The wearing of hair shirts and the hurling of high, hard ones can resume soon enough this week in and around Washington State. For a few hours, at least, the mantra can be, “No matter the opponent...”

Age may be the most malleable commodity in sports, with the possible exception of attendance figures. For instance, you’ve heard it said that November’s freshman in college basketball is a sophomore in March, having 30 games of experience behind him. NFL running backs are old at 28, ancient at 30. And let’s not even start with Chinese gymnasts and their birth certificates.

Age may be the most malleable commodity in sports, with the possible exception of attendance figures.

STILLWATER, Okla. – Is it already time to reconsider the “Maybe it won’t be as bad as we think” season of Washington State football? Hey, it’s always good to be reminded that even hedged expectations can go unfulfilled.

Is it already time to reconsider the “Maybe it won’t be as bad as we think” season of Washington State football?

MOSCOW, Idaho – Before the Humanitarian Bowl went all wild-hairs-and- whoopie-cushions last December, Idaho coach Robb Akey had the play of the day – fixing his stare directly into the ESPN camera at halftime and commanding, “Watch the second half – you’re going to love it!” He could have spent halftime Thursday night handing out similar assurances to the 11,466 at the Kibbie Dome, section by section.

When the Idaho Vandals are done hanging their Humanitarian Bowl banner tonight, can they please pass the duct tape to Karl Benson? The commish needs it to try and keep the Western Athletic Conference together.

In case you never thought you’d see it, a Catholic family just invited a door-belling Mormon missionary into their home. Such is the influence of college athletics.

Brigham Young University has confirmed that it will join the West Coast Conference as a member in basketball and other sports beginning with the 2011-2012 athletic season.

Lou Piniella walked away from baseball on Sunday, a month earlier than planned and with a tip of the cap instead of a kick of the cap. The latter would have been a nice touch but, alas, Lou's fire seems to have gone out. Managing the Chicago Cubs will do that to you.

In a corner near the exit, away from the championship confetti drifting at midfield, Emery Sammons shook his head and drank in the contradiction of how something so absurd could be so absolutely right. “Linebacker!” he said. “I haven’t played linebacker since Pop Warner League!”

Football is the birthplace of the five-year plan, the preferred buying-time strategy for any coach tasked with a program start-up or rebuild. Wonder if the Spokane Shock’s five-year plan actually read anything like this: championship, playoff appearance, overtime loss in title game, championship, hosting title game in an upgraded league. Victory 86 percent of the time. Arena filled to 94 percent of capacity on average. And two coaching changes just to make it interesting.

PULLMAN – Because Brandon Rankin wears the number 5, the first reflex is to assume his appearance in the offensive backfield is the result of a safety blitz. Except that safeties can’t get there that fast. Also, they rarely stand 6-foot-5 and weigh 281 pounds.

On the back of the first Mike Redmond baseball card – Kane County Cougars, 1993 – it read, “Will be a great coach when playing days are over.” As left-handed compliments go, it was a grand slam.