Grip on Sports: Even Easter week isn’t immune to speculation and rumor
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Easter weekend looms, with the specter of little ones roaming the neighborhood in search of eggs. Yep, for those of you who believe life began with social media, that’s where the term “Easter eggs” originated. Not that the term doesn’t have its place in the modern world – and in local sports. Read on.
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• Hidden nuggets are fun in the movies. When a modern Star Wars character makes an obscure reference to an ancient – pre-1990 – one, that’s enough to send a certain percentage of the population into hysteria.
A similar thing happens with social media these days.
Fans mine Twitter and the like, hoping to discover – maybe hoping to be the first to discover – news about their favorite player or team.
And if they find something, they go with it, true or not, fueling a brushfire of speculation, rumor and just plain guesswork.
It happened a couple times Thursday.
As you probably know, Marshawn Lynch seems to want to return to pro football. Just not with the Seahawks. He wants to play for his hometown – for now – team, the Oakland Raiders.
There have been plenty of reports about his return in the mainstream media, as many, I’m sure, as the rumors Richard Sherman is being traded to the Patriots or the Raiders or wherever.
But last night the Lynch-is-back train received a powerful boost, when the running back himself went on Twitter with, “I’m Thankful!!!! Yes Lawd!!!!”
Talk about a Beast Quake. Twitter exploded. Marshawn is coming back. Four exclamation points. It has to be true.
And it might be, as it is being reported the Hawks and Raiders are working on a sign-and-trade deal to allow Lynch to play again.
Good for him (if that’s what he wants), good for the teams, good for the NFL and good for social media.
But you want the flip side?
An example of that happened yesterday as well, and it had to do with a Gonzaga player.
Everyone who calls themselves a GU fan is waiting for Nigel Williams-Goss to make a decision about the NBA draft. Will he declare? Will he hire an agent? Will he just come back for one more year?
He hasn’t decided yet. But that didn’t stop a fake account, one that calls itself a parody account of ESPN basketball writer Jeff Goodman, of fanning the flames. The fake account said Williams-Goss was headed to the NBA.
And some people bought it.
So many, in fact, that Williams-Goss had to take to the Twitterverse and clear it up. “Heard some rumors circulating… just to be clear I still have not made any final decisions regarding my future,” he tweeted early yesterday afternoon.
There may be one good development from this odd adventure, however.
When the fake tweet started circulating, Gonzaga fans started reacting. And they were mainly positive of Williams-Goss’ decision, even if it wasn’t true. Their reactions prompted the point guard to retweet their responses and to add his commentary.
“Just in case anyone was wondering what the GU FAMILY is like… just look at some of these retweets.” And then he used the emojis that denote thankfulness.
Now that’s an Easter egg Gonzaga basketball fans can actually be excited about finding.
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WSU: Keith Harrington was the Invisible Man last football season. But he’s back at running back and back in the picture for the Cougars, as Jacob Thorpe reports in this story from spring practices. … Jacob also has a story on a position change for a redshirt freshman, Grant Porter. … There were comings and goings in Pac-12 basketball yesterday, with Arizona finding out Allonzo Trier will return and California losing its freshman point guard. … UCLA also lost an assistant coach. … Utah signed a small forward. … On the football side, it’s odd to see Beau Baldwin’s name so often in conjunction with California football. … Offense also seems to be the emphasis around UCLA, Oregon and Stanford. … Arizona State is almost done with spring practices.
Gonzaga: The BYU coaching staff is undergoing a major change.
EWU: Jim Allen continues his spring football series of stories with this look at the new generation of receivers.
Empire: The Empire gets a key piece back tonight when they host Colorado. They also hope to take over sole possession of first place in the Intense Conference standings. Josh Horton has all that and more in this advance.
Preps: Track meets took center stage yesterday, with Greg Lee at Mead’s wins over Ferris and Rogers. … In her softball notebook, Whitney Ogden tells us about a Mt. Spokane player up for a national award.
Mariners: With an off day yesterday, the M’s took the time to honor Ken Griffey Jr. once again, this time with the unveiling of a bronze statue of Junior outside Safeco Field. It’s pretty cool too. … With the M’s 10 games into the season, John McGrath takes the time to offer 10 observations. There goes my column idea for Sunday.
Seahawks: Besides the Lynch reports, which may become a fact soon, there are your typical off-season items. Like this mailbag. Or this on Garry Gilliam. And some unusual items, like this story on Rocky Seto’s new profession.
Sounders: For the first time since he left Seattle, the Sounders will face former teammate Fredy Montero when they travel to Vancouver tonight.
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• Hey, I understand Mike Prager’s point in this story about the Portland Trail Blazers today. But when you grow up rooting for one team, and they have a hated rival, it’s nearly impossible to switch your allegiance to said rival when your team disappears. Nearly impossible, heck, it’s a violation of the fan code. Rule 7, subsection ii, paragraph three clearly states: “you must hate that team until the end of time.” Until later …