A Grip on Sports: The return of a prince and the NFL tries something entirely different

A GRIP ON SPORTS • This is the last day for a while in which we won’t have any live sports to talk about. If you consider the NFL Draft live sports. Pretty sure many of you do, especially these days.

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• The draft begins tomorrow. It won’t be held in Las Vegas, as originally planned, thanks to the coronavirus. No boats on a faux lake, no fireworks, no nothing. Instead, it will be a true modern television show, complete with bad Internet connections, talking heads separated by acceptable distances and short delays as electronic impulses travel for one place to another.

Sort of like your baseball fantasy draft, circa 2008.

But how it is presented won’t really matter to most draftees, especially those taken in rounds two through seven. Most wouldn’t have been attending the in-person celebration anyway, so, in their case, 2020 will be no different than 2019.

All they want is chance. A chance to hear their name called. A chance to show they can play football at the highest level. A chance for a chance.

That’s what the NFL Draft is about. Any professional draft, really. But none attract as much national interest as the one that begins Thursday. See you there.

• And here we were, thinking Rob Gronkowski had retired from the NFL. Turns out New England’s do-everything tight end had only retired from playing for Bill Belichick. How odd is that?

The Patriots traded Gronkowski to Tampa Bay yesterday, where the former Arizona Wildcat will be reunited with his New England quarterback Tom Brady.

The fact Gronk would give up his WWE gig, his Instagram postings and his partying for Brady shows the depth of their connection, doesn’t it? That has to bode well for the Buccaneers.

Though, more than likely, Gronkowski won’t be going cold turkey concerning all of his retirement activities, especially the partying one. But if he’s only 80 percent what he was, he’ll still help Brady and the Tampa Bay offense. And bring a little magic back to the league.

• If and when there is college football played again – the University of Connecticut’s president caused a bit of a kerfuffle yesterday concerning that – the rules will be different.

If a player gets ejected for targeting, he won’t have to leave the sidelines anymore. Great. Let him stand there and be ridiculed by the opponent’s fans. Nothing can go wrong with that.

There was also a flexible time limit put on replay review, but the flexibility makes that change moot in reality. Also, among other minor changes, players can now wear No. 0, which should be fairly popular.

The most underrated rule change the NCAA announced yesterday? When players are on the field, they must be identifiable by number. In other words, they must have a jersey on no matter what. No more running around in the snow shirtless. Though I guess a player could put a big “90” on their back in Sharpie and satisfy the rule.

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WSU: Speed is just about everything in the NFL, on both sides of the ball. A player’s 40-yard sprint time can make or break his ability to be drafted or how high he gets picked. So it behooves any college player in the draft pool to improve their 40 time. Which is exactly what Easop Winston Jr. and Brandon Arconado set out to do. As Theo Lawson relates in this story, they succeeded. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12, Larry Scott reiterated recently he expects all fall sports to begin at the same time. Football wouldn’t be treated any differently. … Football recruiting is currently different, though Oregon is trying to simulate the on-campus experience. … There are NFL Draft stories from just about everywhere, including Washington, Arizona, Arizona State and Oregon State. … Speaking of the Huskies, Mark Brunell overcame am awful draft day. … If the NFL doesn’t play this fall, neither will college football. … In basketball news, if Utah and BYU don’t complete their scheduled series, there is a cost. … Arizona may dip into its past to fill out its current coaching staff.

EWU: If Washington State plays Utah on a Saturday night in Pullman, probably less than 10 percent of Cougar fans that are watching are watching in person. But just up the road, if Eastern Washington is hosting Southern Utah, the percentages might be flipped. Which is why FBS schools earn so much more in television revenue than their FCS counterparts. Thus playing games in the fall in empty stadiums would hit FCS schools harder than those a level up. Larry Weir examines this issue in the latest Press Box pod. … Around the Big Sky, Montana picked up a pretty sought-after transfer. And lost a voice. … Northern Arizona added a lesser-known defensive specialist. … Recruiting has slowed down for Weber State. … The NFL Draft means something at the FCS level too, including for these players from Montana State, Portland State and Weber State.

Chiefs: Adam Beckman had a good year. Strike that. Adam Beckman had an exceptional year. The best year, in fact, in the Western Hockey League’s Western Conference. He was named the conference’s Player of the Year yesterday. He still has a chance to be named the league’s player of the year, an award that will be announced next month. Dan Thompson has more in this story.

Indians: Baseball America reported Tuesday that Major League Baseball and its minor league counterparts have reached a tentative agreement to change the face of professional baseball in this country. The agreement is supposed to be solidified today. Dave Nichols takes a deeper look at what that might mean, even though Spokane seems to be safe from any possible contraction contained within the deal.

Preps: The Caviness name has been synonymous with high school running for decades, but most-closely identified with Ferris High, thanks to Herm and his son Chris. The younger Caviness, who has served as the Saxons boys cross country and girls track coach, died yesterday after a battle with cancer. He was 56. Dave has Chris Caviness’ obituary.

Seahawks: John Schneider and Pete Carroll held a Zoom meeting with the Seattle media yesterday and talked about their plans for the upcoming draft. Well, not really. Schneider never gives away what he really thinks. Who would? … The door isn’t closed on Jadeveon Clowney, but it isn’t wide open either. … The Hawks signed a few players we already knew were coming back.

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• Want to know my favorite retirement activity? Nope, it’s not golf or bridge or even sitting in a café swapping lies with old friends, though those are all fun. It’s growing tomatoes. Italians, right? The gene that forces your mind to believe this is enjoyable must kick in after age 55 or something. It’s time for me to make my run for the plants and get them in the dirt. I may even try to grow a beefsteak or two this year. I know. Branching out. I’ve always thought of myself as an adventurer. Until later …