A Grip on Sports: A familar foe for Seahawks’ playoff opener sparks conspiracy theories and ticket complaints

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.

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• No, I’m not discounting the Chicago Bears. The NFC’s No. 2 seed is the league’s version of a George Romero movie. Just when you think they are dead, they rise again, over and over. But if they walk zombie-like through the first part of their Sunday semifinal with the Rams, they will be all dead, not just mostly dead. And Sean McVay will be prepping for another NFC title game.

Seahawk fans will be hoping that game will be in Seattle. The NFL seems to be as well. Though the league placing the 49ers into the Saturday schedule isn’t a conspiracy against Mike Shanahan’s squad.

The top seeds have started their playoff runs on Saturday lately, just like Denver is doing in the AFC. If the Packers could have put a stake through Chicago’s heart last Saturday, they would have traveled to the Northwest on regular rest. So blame Matt LeFleur if you want, not Roger Goodell.

The holes we referenced above? We still don’t know the Saturday start times. The other gaping gap, who survives tonight’s final Wild Card Weekend matchup, will have to be determined before Saturday’s time schedule is announced. The two available slots? That would be 1:30 p.m. or 5. And, no, I don’t have a guess. Don’t have a care either.

• I did get a laugh yesterday, though. How? Reading complaints on the socials about the Seahawks’ warning to their season ticket holders in the runup to Saturday’s game.

The team is telling fans it is monitoring their tickets on the resale sites. And if it looks as if they were purchased just to be resold, then the franchise may not allow them to renew them next season. It is a circumstance the club warned of when it sold the tickets.

This seems to have a few folks up in arms. Or fingers, which took to the Interweb to decry the attack on capitalism. Or freedom. Or America. Or whatever.

Hey, I bought ‘em. Paid good old American dollars for them. They are mine. I can sell them to whoever I want.

Fine. No one, not even the club, is saying that’s not true. If a season ticket holder wants to triple or quadruple their money by selling their seats to George from Los Altos Hills so he can don his Purdy jersey and cheer on his beloved 49ers, no one is stopping them. That’s just good ol’ American greed in action.

But no one can force the team to sell season tickets to the reseller next year either. Capitalism flows both ways. Especially when there is such a demand, the supply can be controlled.

• Is it possible the Gonzaga men could fall out of the Associated Press basketball poll’s top 10 today, even without losing last week? Yes it is. Maybe even probable, though a drop from eight to 11 might be one spot too far.

It won’t surprise me if undefeated Nebraska (16-0) and Vanderbilt (16-0) both jump GU. Especially the latter, which defeated No. 13 Alabama – also on Gonzaga’s victims list – and LSU.

But for the Zags to drop from the top 10, it probably will take enough voters flipping them with BYU, which won twice last week. Though the Cougars’ second was a close call at mediocre, at best, Utah. The Bulldogs’ lone win of the week, at home over Santa Clara, may not be enough to forestall a longer drop.

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WSU: Greg Woods has two pieces of recruiting news today, one that will have impact next season on the field, the other more of an impact down the road. Former UCLA tight end Jack Pedersen is transferring to Pullman for his final season, though who really knows anymore. And Sumner High class of 2026 star Lance McGee, who once seemed locked in to head to Oregon State, now looks to be part of Washington State’s class. … Every Inland Northwest Division I school had an alum playing, and playing well, in the weekend’s NFL playoffs. Colton Clark covers them, from the Cougars’ Daiyan Henley to Idaho’s Christian Elliss. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, Washington’s men took a big step in the Big Ten on Sunday, topping one of the conference’s perennial powers, Ohio State, at home. … Rebounding is an ongoing concern for Colorado. … What did its close loss to BYU say about Utah? … USC coach Eric Musselman had another opportunity to remember his late dad Bill with the Trojans’ trip to Minnesota. … San Diego State’s 71-52 win over Fresno State on Saturday night was built on the inside. … One-loss Utah State should be ranked this week. … The  23rd-ranked UW women led late but couldn’t hold it and lost in overtime 78-72 at Purdue. … No. 21 USC lost 63-62 at Minnesota, its third consecutive loss. … Fourth-ranked UCLA had little problem with No. 25 Nebraska on the road, winning 83-61. … Oregon stayed close but fell to No. 15 Michigan State at home, 85-81. … Stanford lost to Duke while Cal won at Wake Forest. … Colorado could not get past Oklahoma State. 

• In football news, Jon Wilner wonders how Oregon can take the next step in the playoffs. Or if the Ducks even can. … The saga of Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr. is illustrative of how schools are trying to enforce NIL contracts. … There is so many transfer stories for Oregon and Oregon State. We picked three. The Beavers found a quarterback. So did the Ducks. And UO retained its starting defensive front. … Colorado continues to add. … There is no chance UCLA will ever build an on-campus football stadium. … Arizona has targeted a couple of main areas in the portal. … Utah State has put together an 11-player group. … Utah should have more money to spend soon.

Gonzaga: Former Zag star Rui Hachimura is about ready to return to the Lakers. He had been dealing with an injury.

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, not only are the Northern Arizona men dealing with a losing streak, they have lost their leading scorer for about a month. … Portland State has added a general manager for its football program. And he had some things to say recently.

Seahawks: There is plenty of Hawk news to pass along, but no more fun than this story in the Times. “Stan Darnold” indeed. … The Times’ story on tackling we linked yesterday? It is available on the S-R site today. … The coaching matchup between the 49ers and Seahawks is always fun. … You know what’s not fun? George Kittle tearing his Achilles on Sunday. Of course the perennial All-Pro tight end will not play in Seattle.

Sounders: Training camp is about to start. There are questions for Seattle to answer as it goes on.

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• Monday Night NFL games have been a staple of my life since Don Meredith used to show his (awful) chops as a singer. The final game of each season marks another year. That happens tonight. To say goodbye, we offer a fun aside about Meredith and his weekly rendition of “The Party is Over.” Meredith and songwriter Willie Nelson were friends. So the MNF star would sing the song long enough for his buddy Willie to earn a residual from ABC. That is what we today refer to as a solid. Until later …