A Grip on Sports: The NFL begins again tonight, though watching the Eagles/Cowboys clash is not as easy – or cheap – as it might be
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Tonight’s the night. Thursday night. Thursday Night Football, the first game of the most highly anticipated NFL season since, well, last season. Anticipation of the NFL’s start is at 100%. Has been for decades. And no matter what your junior high football coach screamed, no one can give 110%. Not even the NFL. Or its fans.
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• But the Cowboys and the Eagles? And the broadcast venue? Maybe tonight’s game isn’t 100% pure gold. Ten, 20% tops. Can’t say I will be locked in. And the fact the game is on Peacock isn’t the reason. It’s free for me. Well, sort of. I pay a car payment every month for Comcast’s less-than-perfect cable programming, which has the added perk of Peacock thrown in.
The 21st Century’s version of Engulf & Devour owns the streaming service. Along with a movie studio, amusement parks and a national Spanish language network some of us watched for its racy soap operas back in the day.
Tonight’s ratings will be fine. The Eagles are coming off a Super Bowl win – again – and everyone loves to hate watch the defending champions. The Cowboys are the Cowboys. Jerry Jones’ team. Micah Parsons’ former team. America’s team – at which to throw shade. That’s fine by the NFL. Hate and envy and malice mean more money.
And distracts everyone from the new ads on The RedZone Network.
• Is nothing sacred?
OK, stupid question for someone who is an avid follower of college sports, who has followed the fortunes of the Seattle Mariners for more than four decades and who understands the dollar bill’s importance in every aspect of American sports.
Nothing in the sporting world is sacred. Except the pursuit of money.
• There are some things that can be described as time-honored, however, even if they are not sacred.
One of them is playing out right now in the M’s world. A late-season fadeaway.
In 2024, Seattle was 10 games ahead of the American League West pack on June 18. The M’s still were in first place as late as Aug. 11. And were eliminated from that race with almost a week left.
Two years ago, they were tied for the A.L. West lead on this date. They finished third.
This season? You know the drill. After an eight-game win streak in early August, the Mariners pulled into a tie with Houston with a 1-0, George Kirby-led win over host Baltimore. The next night Logan Gilbert took a shutout into the seventh inning – and a 1-0 lead. Then Ryan Mountcastle drove a ball into the left-centerfield bleachers and Seattle’s walls began tumbling down. The Orioles scored twice more off Gabe Speier and some defensive gaffes, the M’s rallied to tie it in the ninth but Baltimore walked off Matt Brash in the bottom of the inning.
Since then, everything changed. In the 20 games since ascending to the West’s top spot, Seattle is 6-14, 2-10 on the road. They are three games back of the Astros with 22 games left after Wednesday’s 9-4 loss.
The starting pitching looks exhausted. The bullpen seems out of gas. The starting lineup? Worn down by too many innings. The outlook? Bleak.
• There is a ray of hope, even after being swept by the Rays.
Despite their troubles, the Mariners still hold the league’s final wild-card spot. It seems a .300 winning percentage over three weeks wasn’t enough to knock them all the way out. They are 1.5 games ahead of Texas and 2.5 in front of Kansas City. Like 2022, they may still squeak into the postseason.
A little Red Bull for the players. A little Geritol for the coaching staff. A little luck. They may just play .540 the rest of the way and hold everyone off. You never know.
But don’t count on it.
• The M’s decided to bring top catching prospect Harry Ford to the big leagues when rosters expanded a few days ago. And will not catch him.
That tells me two things. They expect Ford to be a bat they can count on next season and want him to experience the pressure of September. But, at best, he’s earmarked as the 2026 version of Mitch Garver. Catching occasionally, being a DH some.
Hopefully, considering Garver’s first inning on Wednesday – a passed ball and a dropped tag play at the plate – along with his season-long woes at the plate, Ford will be better at both assignments.
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WSU: The one thing that stood out to me Saturday night as I watched the Cougars’ second half live (and sacred the dog with my verbal outbursts)? Tony Freeman’s quickness. Not his speed, his quick starts, stops and bursts that allowed him to finish with seven catches. Greg Woods has more on the undersized receiver. … San Diego State coach Sean Lewis spoke about the Aztecs’ matchup in Pullman this weekend. (7:15 p.m., The CW Network). … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, John Canzano focuses on money in his column today, piggybacking off Mike Gundy’s comments (and more comments) on Oregon’s ability to spend freely in search of a national title. … Here are the rest of the (current, old and future) Pac-12 schedule this week, listed chronologically. All games this week are on Saturday unless noted. The schedule below includes any game in which mining news about it turned out to be nearly impossible.
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– Eastern Washington at Boise State (Friday, 6 p.m., FS1): The Broncos have spent a lot of time working on special teams. … If you are looking for Eastern stories, jump down to the EWU section below.
– Utah State at No. 19 Texas A&M (9:45 a.m., SEC Network): The UTEP coach is still angry about the officiating in last week’s loss to USU.
– Oklahoma State at No. 6 Oregon (12:30 p.m., CBS): The Ducks didn’t need their top running back so they rested him liberally last week. … Oklahoma State’s quarterback will be making his first college start. … How will the game play out?
– Fresno State at Oregon State (12:30, The CW Network): The Beavers’ kicker is really good. And he plays the game with an infectious smile on his face.
– Delaware at Colorado (12:30, Fox): The Buffs can count on their placekicker. And hope to be able to count on their linebackers a little more.
– Texas State at UTSA (12:30, ESPN+): These type of rivalry games are what makes the sport special.
– Texas Southern at California (3, ACC Network): The Bears’ freshman quarterback had a great first game. Will it continue?
– Cal Poly at Utah (3, ESPN+): It’s not a conference game, so Jon Wilner didn’t include it in his game-by-game look at the Utes expected Big 12-title run. But they will win. … As long as quarterback Devon Dampier doesn’t get injured.
– Northern Colorado at Colorado State (4): The Rams have lost a defensive lineman to injury, probably for the season. … The Bears have a win under their belt as they meet their in-state foe.
– No. 12 Arizona State at Mississippi State (4:30, ESPN2): If the Sun Devils need him, punter Kanyon Floyd is ready.
– Georgia Southern at USC (4:30, FS1): No matter the score, at least the Trojans look good.
– UCLA at UNLV (5, CBS Sports Network): If the Bruins want to win, they will have to do five things well.
– Weber State at Arizona (7 ESPN+): The emergence of a defensive lineman helped Arizona break away last week vs. Hawaii. … The Wildcats are a bit beat-up in the secondary.
– Stanford at BYU (7:15, ESPN)
– UC Davis at Washington (8, Big Ten Network): Is the Huskies’ glass half-full or half-empty? Christian Caple examines both. … Pulling an upset of a FBS school is something UC Davis has done before.
Gonzaga: The nonconference schedule has dripped out over the past couple months. Mainly through opponents’ announcements. Theo Lawson covers the schedule from A to Z. … Around the WCC, the University of California, San Diego, will be joining the conference in 2027, possibly heralding another defection. Could Saint Mary’s be on the move?
EWU: We mentioned earlier this week the Eagles could be running into a buzz saw tomorrow night in Boise. The Broncos got whipped last Thursday, their coach called out their effort this week and expects a bounce back in their home opener. Dan Thompson delves into all this in this preview of the game. … He also introduces us to safety Drew Carter in this story. … Elsewhere in the (current and future) Big Sky, South Dakota State wants to be challenged. Its why it plays on the road, like Saturday in Bozeman. … If you want to play football and fish, Montana is a good place to do it. … Sacramento State needs to turn things around quickly, with a date in Reno this weekend. … Portland State may be playing the toughest schedule in the conference. The Vikings are at North Dakota this week. … Northern Arizona and Utah Tech meet in Flagstaff. … … Northern Arizona has filled out it women’s basketball schedule.
Whitworth: Around the Northwest Conference, Lewis & Clark is changing mascots. There are eight finalists.
Preps: Yep, school is off and running. So are school sports. We can pass along a short roundup of Wednesday’s soccer action.
Indians: Spokane had a doubleheader Wednesday night. In Eugene. Lost both. Dave Nichols has all the details.
Zephyr: Emma Jaskaniec’s last-minute goal lifted Spokane to a draw at one against host Brooklyn FC.
Seahawks: The Hawks’ new quarterback, Sam Darnold, is part of one of the NFL’s top storylines for 2025. … Seattle has little chance to make the playoffs according to the analytical folks. … Devon Witherspoon is the soul of the Seahawk defense. And embodies Mike Macdonald’s vision. … As if the 49ers/Seattle rivalry needs more fuel. There is some roster crossover both ways. … Will the home-field advantage show up again? … We mentioned the NFL and money at the top of our column. Here is how much it would cost to have access to every game. … It’s time to start sharing weekly picks.
Mariners: We linked above the game story to last night’s over-after-one-inning 9-4 loss to Tampa. We do it again here.
Storm: The Times has more on Sue Bird today, with the story about her retirement life appearing on the S-R website. … Bird has a more-than-basketball resume, has always been a winner and impacts off the court as well.
Sounders: This is a good argument for the next time you gather with your buddies for lunch or an adult beverage. Brian Schmetzer, Seattle’s all-time best coach. Yes or no?
Tennis: The men’s semifinals are set. Can anyone stop Jannik Sinner? … The women’s are too, with the best story American Amanda Anisimova’s ability to bounce back from her 6-0, 6-0 Wimbledon finals defeat to Iga Świątek with a 6-4, 6-3 quarterfinal win over her Wednesday.
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• Holidays always throw the schedule off. Had the trash out too early this week. Maybe it is actually the heat. September’s record 100-degrees run has knocked out my son’s air conditioner (it is fixed), my other son’s car battery (today’s chore – on his birthday) and our garage refrigerator (that will have to wait until next month). What a pain. What an expensive pain. Until later …