A Grip on Sports: It turns out even in the dog days of August, sports news owns us in a way nothing else can touch

A GRIP ON SPORTS • What a time to be alive. The Mariners own a lineup to be feared. The Seahawks own our attention. The Cougars own a real-life quarterback competition. And the NFL owns part of a company that purports to report on its foibles and follies.

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• That last one? Another small step toward perdition for an industry that has lived in purgatory a while.

Sports journalism – that is not an oxymoron no matter how often our former newsroom colleagues might have emphasized the point – has been able to withstand the past couple decades of financial decline better than most of its brethren. Mainly because sports news is so important to the Average Joe and Joelene, they are willing to pay a premium for it.

But when the self-proclaimed WorldWide Leader, which has embedded itself in a coarse way with all the sports it covers, sells more than its soul to the most-powerful and richest league in the world, viewers can kiss independence goodbye. It is the inevitable result of Roger Goodell’s company spinning off parts of itself for a 10% stake in Disney’s sports arm.

The fox is guarding the henhouse. Which should not be confused with Fox, which already has sold all of its journalistic ethics to the highest bidders, or CBS or NBC or Amazon or anyone else who partners with the NFL to broadcast games.

That’s always been problematic, just as it has always been a problem for sports or leagues not contracted with ESPN to earn news coverage of their events.

ESPN has traded its soul for silver for years. Now it is just out in the open.

• Down the road in Pullman, where the Cougars will have only one game on the ESPN family this season – so don’t expect many mentions on SportsCenter – there is something fun unfolding. A call-back to the Mike Leach-era if you will.

Leach was notoriously reticent to name a starting quarterback. His depth charts – a tradition, like many others, he despised – would often have an “or” next to each quarterback, even if the name at the top of the list was the career-school-record-holding passer. And started every game in which he was healthy.

Heck if was good enough for Luke Falk, it should be good enough for Zevi Eckhaus (and Jaxon Potter and transfers Julian Dugger and Ajani Sheppard).

At some point Jimmy Rogers, whose ideas about the starting quarterback is the only Leach-like tendency I’ve been able to discover, will have to make a choice. Or maybe it will be up to offensive coordinator Danny Freund. Either way, someone will have to take the first snaps at the game’s most-important position come Aug. 30.

• Are you like me? Spending as much time as available every morning trying to discover what’s happening at Seahawks’ camp? Being consumed by stories about the secondary or the specialists or Kenneth Walker III’s health?

Or are you more interested in the view of the league from 30,000 feet, where your hopes of winning your fantasy league reside?

After years and years I realized my fantasy team – in every sport – has about as much chance of winning as the Raiders. Or the Jaguars. Or the Falcons in that one Super Bowl. So I bailed out. And have spent the past couple decades more interested in the team from the Emerald City.

This year’s group is intriguing. Underrated, as well. But I have a feeling it is more attractive than most believe. After all, last year was another fiasco on the offensive side, from having an offensive coordinator more suited for the college game to having to depend on an exceptionally talented wideout who pouted and preened more than run routes to help others get open. And yet, the Hawks won 10 games.

Yes, I know, schedule inflation has rendered that benchmark moot. But still, there is an opportunity in Seattle, what with the defense returning almost every one of its end-of-season stars. This is certain. The Hawks are worth our attention.

• So is the Mariner offense. Finally.

It’s not perfect, no. They really don’t have an outstanding, scare-the-bejeezus-out-of-you leadoff hitter. And most, if not all, of the M’s hitters are less consistent than anyone would desire. But that’s baseball, circa 2025.

Randy Arozarena is hot. So is Julio Rodriguez. Cal Raleigh less so, but still the best bat in the lineup. If Eugenio Suárez isn’t. Or Josh Naylor, the other new addition. Dom Canzone has picked it up. J.P. Crawford and Jorge Polanco are having rebound seasons. Cole Young is a revelation.

It may not be enough. But fun to watch? Yes. Might as well. After all, I can only spend so much time watching the NFL infomercial ESPN is about to become.

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WSU: Greg Woods’ story about the quarterback competition kick-started our thoughts above. As his stories do many days. … Daiyan Henley was fun to watch in Pullman. Charger fans are finding him fun to watch as well. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, it’s that time. Jon Wilner is back and he has his AP top 25 ballot available. As always, Wilner is a bit of an outlier. Good for him. … John Canzano covered some ground yesterday we did as well. The same ground Cooper Lutkenhaus made up in the U.S. 800-meter title race. … Stewart Mandel has a mailbag in The Athletic today. … Just about every college football team is in the full-pads stage of preseason practice. Washington is no exception. And the Huskies’ safeties are showing how well they hit. … Oregon State is also in full pads. … There is an Oregon tight end who is back from an ACL injury. One of the Duck players, however, is still out as his court case moves forward. … Recruiting never stops for Colorado. Nor does Warren Sapp, apparently. … Stories about Utah’s new offense seem to just keep coming. But the Utes have always been a defense-first team. … Arizona State heading to the mountains for training camp is one of my favorite college traditions. … Stories about how the coaching staff is handling practice differently is not. Usually, as it is at Arizona, that means the staff is in trouble. … Though Boise State has veterans in its receiving corps, some underclassmen are shining too. … Fresno State has a quarterback competition going as well. … A key member of San Diego State’s offensive line left practice yesterday but it doesn’t look as if there is a major injury. … In basketball news, USC has a player from outside the U.S. who is pushing for playing time.  

Gonzaga: Did you know Mark Few’s winning streak in season-opening games is old enough to order an adult beverage with dinner? Yep, the Zag men have won 21 consecutive openers. And should make it 22, unless something weird happens in the Kennel on Nov. 3. Once more Few has scheduled a streak-extending win, with GU hosting overmatched Texas Southern to start the season. Theo Lawson has more in this story.

EWU: One streak that might end after this season? The 29 years head coach Aaron Best has been part of the Eastern football program. Best is on the hottest of hot seats as his Eagles have posted an 11-23 record (8-16 in Big Sky play) the past three years. To turn the tide, Best, a former offensive lineman and coach, will have to meld a completely new group up front, an ongoing process Dan Thompson covers in this notebook. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, helmet communication is all the rage in the conference. … Montana has hired three new analysts for its staff. … Who will try to fill the big shoes left at Montana State at quarterback? … Sacramento State’s practice continues. … In basketball news, the schedule announcement has made its way to places covering the Idaho State women and Weber State men.

Idaho: We covered longtime coach Dan Cozzetto’s death in this space early this week. There is an obituary for the former Gonzaga Prep, SFCC and Idaho player in the S-R this morning.

Indians: Heat is always expected in the area this time of year. Another thing expected recently in the region? No heat from the Indians’ lineup. Dave Nichol’s latest game story covers the team’s latest offensive struggle, a 2-0 loss to host Eugene.

Mariners: The lineup was powerful last night. More importantly it was productive as well. Fast. Smart. Pair that with another excellent seven-inning, one-run start from Bryan Woo and what do you have? An 8-3 series-opening win over the White Sox. … Seattle is getting healthier and that is big news. … The path to the playoffs is clear.

Seahawks: NFL training camps are nothing new to the Spokane area. Many of us have stories about taking our kids to Cheney back in the day to watch the Hawks sweat and cuss. But our grandparents might have had stories to tell too. After all, the Washington team trained here for a while back in the late 1930s, when Gonzaga grad Ray Flaherty was its coach. As an aside, my dad dragged me over to nearby Occidental College – about 15 miles from our home in Monrovia, Calif. – when I was just a lad to watch Washington practice. … We linked this receiver story yesterday when it was in the Times. It is available on the S-R site today. And we can add another link. … The veterans are teaching their younger teammates. … It’s a key year for one member of the secondary.

Storm: Seattle must feel as if it has a chance to win the WNBA title. It included a future first-round draft pick to acquire defensive wizard guard Brittney Sykes from Washington yesterday.

Kraken: How many NHL teams can claim they’ve had a player and their mascot chased by a bear? Well, it is a Canadian-heavy league, so probably a lot of them. But Seattle joined those ranks this week. And there is video evidence. … The team also made a front-office change.

Sounders: Seattle has been really good in Leagues Cup play. They are back at it tonight.

Olympics: The Games will be in Los Angeles in 2028. The federal government will be involved in a more public way than before.

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• Ya, I have been skeptical of ESPN’s journalistic credentials for a while. A long while. Probably no one else cares. But there is one thing everyone cares about with this NFL deal. Will Scott Hanson stay in the RedZone chair? He says yes. But my guess is he’ll have more time for breaks, as it would come as a big surprise if ESPN didn’t add commercials. Until later …