Vince Grippi

A GRIP ON SPORTS • The calendar has flipped to 2026. But in the NFL sense, this is still 2025. The extension of the season that began just after Labor Day. And a chance for the Seattle Seahawks to continue the best professional sports year Washington has experienced this century.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • It’s funny. The status quo seems to change daily in NCAA sports. Pros playing. Players signing big-money NIL deals – then trying to break them. Losers becoming winners. Vice-versa. So much so change, in fact, when some aspect doesn’t, it’s seen as a disappointment.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • It’s Friday. I think. This time of year, with gray days that all look alike, it can be hard to remember. But the calendar on my phone assures me it is, so we have an assignment. Look ahead to the weekend in sports. That’s easy. Especially this week. One event looms over everything.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • There are people I know, and know well, who are already ripping their fingernails apart due to what’s coming Sunday afternoon in Seattle. That seems like an eternity to me. Too long, at least, to spend too much time on the NFC title game today. Instead, let’s take a quick look at everything else happening, shall we? And leave the weekend to the weekend.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • If you get a chance today, take a quick look at the NFL standings. Just for fun. Add up the wins for each division. Or losses, if you’re a half-empty type of person. The crudest form of analytics will tell you everything you might want to know about the Seahawks’ season.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Where were we? Oh ya, being pushed for time in the morning as winter deepens. Turns out, that hasn’t changed even though the area code has. The Seahawks, however, will see their offensive backfield change this weekend. And college football has experienced a sea change in who is on top.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Thirteen seconds into Saturday night’s NFL playoff game between rivals, the two San Francisco fans sitting near us knew it was over. Their beloved 49ers were finished. All that was left was naming the final score. The Seahawks decide to name it after their most-lopsided win ever.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Anything of consequence happening in the Northwest today? Other than the sun making an appearance west of the Cascades and boosting the temps into the high 40s, I mean? That’s always a big deal in January. How about an NFL playoff game fans can attend? It’s been a while. Since 2017.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • The three days of the upcoming mid-January holiday weekend? Football, football and more football. Oh, and a smattering of basketball for those of you in need. Add in Thursday’s news and wow. Just wow.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Gone are the days when there used to be Post-it notes all over our home. Little yellow (at first) reminders of this and that, aimed at everything from school events to bills due. Which reminds me, for those of us who pay estimate taxes, the government needs its dues today. Is there a Post-it note about that on the fridge? Nope. Everything is in the phone these days.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • The Seahawks play Saturday in Seattle. That’s important. Washington State and Gonzaga’s men play Thursday in Pullman. That’s important too. But why just focus on the important stuff? The average and mundane deserve some attention too.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • A warm wind blew through the Inland Northwest on Monday. Not strong enough to move much but plenty warm enough, melting the old snow and making room for any new that might come down the road. A perfect analogy for college basketball on the West Coast.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • The upcoming NFL weekend is set. With a couple big holes. But, hey, the 49ers are headed to Seattle for a Saturday matchup. And it looks more and more as if the Seahawks will have to run through its division again to earn a Super Bowl berth.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • It was almost 50 years ago when I realized for the first time the NCAA did not exist to actually help student athletes. It was, in fact, an organization whose primary purpose seemed to be to prop up the status quo. No matter the cost.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Think about the most-impactful college football stories the past few days. You know what they have in common? They have a familiar Northwest hue. Green. As in money. And in roast duck.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • It’s Friday. A weekend with snow on the ski slopes looms. So does the best NFL weekend of the year. One that unfolds this season without the Seahawks. And yet every person who has a 12s shirt in their closet is happy. And time on their hands to watch, well, whatever is on.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • It’s really easy to yearn for the good old days. When all a college football fan got angry about was their team’s performance on the field. A coaching decision on third-and-4. The rising cost of a hot dog. Good times, right? They are never coming back. If they really existed at all.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • There are often prep sports stories that twist your heart in a knot. Most of them, though, pull on the strings of competition, rivalries or injuries. Dave Nichols’ story on Colfax boys’ basketball coach Reece Jenkin is different. And more important.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • A headline caught my eye this morning. Something about college football. Whether it can be saved. And it hit me. The answer depends on how the person asking the question sees history.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • The long slog begins. You know what I mean. The stretch between the end of the holidays until the first 60-degree day of spring. Between snow pants and shorts. Between indoors and out. When the sun supposedly lasts a little longer in the afternoon but hardly appears from behind the clouds. Thank goodness there are enough Northwest sports stories to get us through.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Is it OK to make an assumption? My dad would say no, I’m sure. He used to rail at me when I did, breaking the word “assume” into three sections to show me the error of my ways. But today? I can assume you watched the Seahawks’ defense overcome every obstacle in its way last night, right?

A GRIP ON SPORTS • We have to wait until 5 tonight? That’s like, what, all day? In this “I-want-it-now” society? What will we ever do before the Seahawks and the 49ers meet in the Super Bowl (site) to decide the NFC West. And the NFC bye. And the chance to be the team heading into the playoffs with the biggest target. We have an answer. How about read what we have here? My contribution will burn off at least five minutes. The rest is on you.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • A New Year’s Day of dominating defense, guard-changing and a wild, wacky, “the-stage-is-on-the-field” ending finally is done. Though I’m pretty sure in an alternative dimension somewhere the Upside Down still exists and Georgia is still lateraling the football.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • It is only the first day of 2026 and I am already 0-1. No, I didn’t pick Ohio State to win last night. Nor any other football game. Bucking tradition, I decided to get up this morning and do this column. Only because I told you I would. At 1:15 in the morning, as our dog shivered in my arms, scared senseless by the continuing rain of fireworks, I wished I hadn’t.