A Grip on Sports: A couple different Hall of Fame folks – for different reasons – dominate the news cycle, regionally and nationally
A GRIP ON SPORTS • No way this was expected. No, not the Bill Belichick/Pro Football Hall of Fame news. That was sort of anticipated for a variety of reasons. And not Rick Rizz’s announcement he’s retiring at the end of the season. Given his age, 72, it had to be coming. But what wasn’t on the agenda was our front yard looking like the Broncos’ stadium from Sunday. Fourth-quarter edition.
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• Ya, it is snowing. Enough to make it sloppy and slick outside. Thankfully, the weather folks are promising it will warm up enough today, tomorrow at the latest, it will melt away. Not sure I’m a believer.
One person who I do believe in? Rizz. For 40 years he’s entered our home, or ridden shotgun in the car, almost every day from April to September. That’s a lot of miles. And he’s done it with an unfailing optimism that the team he has described faithful over those years, your Seattle Mariners, never really fulfilled.
Rizz and I arrived in the Northwest the same year, 1983. And other than a three-year mid-1990s sojourn in Detroit that turned out poorly, he’s been a lifer in these parts.
A lifer who changed quite a few lives with his unrelenting niceness.
I got to know Rizz through his radio work. But I actually got to know him through a short-term connection I had with the Mariners’ Fantasy Camp at the end of the last century.
My friend Mike Murphey teamed with former player Dave Henderson to run the team’s approved dream vacation for hardcore, and well-off, team aficionados. It was a tough enterprise to put together and to pull off. To do both, and make a profit, Murphey and his partner Fielding Snow tapped into a group of friends to help.
I was one of them. I spent a few years in attendance, playing some but spending most of my time putting out a daily newsletter for the campers. Writing, editing and producing it after the games were done each day. Then meeting the coaches and management for a social hour – or two.
That’s where Rizz comes in. He and Henderson were friends. Partners in a charity, “Toys for Kids,” they founded in 1995. Maybe partners in the camp, I don’t know. But he was around often. And, as I got to know him, I realized he was as nice as his radio persona made him seem. A nice guy in public who is actually a private angel too? That’s rare.
If I had to describe our interactions under oath, I would have to testify Rizz was a Hall of Fame person. Or be committing perjury.
He also has to be the next person inducted into the Mariner Hall of Fame. Forty years – it will be 41 when he bids adieu after next season’s playoffs – calling a mostly dreary franchise that constantly disappointed its fans with its miserly ways? And doing it with the unfailing joie de vivre Rizz delivers? That has to be rewarded.
• Whether Rizz also belongs in Cooperstown, that’s up to debate. But there is little in the way of an argument Belichick, the most-successful NFL coach of all time, belongs in Canton. But it has been widely reported, and is certainly true, he wasn’t voted in this year, his first time up for the honor.
And the outrage has, in less than 24 hours, reached national political levels. Ya, that bad.
How could someone who led his team to a record six Super Bowls wins not be enshrined on his first try? That’s unacceptable. But not for the reasons most everyone is citing.
There probably wasn’t a jealous backlash or a “he never won anything without Tom Brady” justification. Sure, there had to be some voters – there are only 50 who make the decision – who had those things on their mind or held the Spygate scandal against Belichick. And wanted to send a message.
But the main stumbling block was probably the new voting rules instituted for the 2025 class. The rules limited the voters to three names out of five on the non-modern-era players’ ballot.
As Mike Sando, one of those voters, explained Tuesday on X, that limit may have cost Belichick his rightful place as a first-ballot honoree.
Sando raised the possibility there were some voters who thought Spygate, the cheating scandal around rule-breaking video that cost Belichick a NFL-maximum $500,000 fine and a suspension, warranted a first-ballot punishment. And others may have thought Belichick was a lock, so they used their secret ballot on worthy senior players who were on the cusp. Maybe a vote or two that excluded Belichick was done to highlight the rule changes most football writers felt were way too limiting.
Add them up and Belichick came up short.
And, as Sando predicts, the new rules might soon become the old rules. Nothing like a controversial outcome to force change.
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WSU: Around the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, Jon Wilner has his weekly ranking of the Big 12 in the Mercury News. … The paper also has Jeff Metcalfe’s ranking of the West Coast women’s programs. UCLA is on top while Gonzaga and Oregon State are also in the top 12. … Which class has the best players this season? The freshmen? The seniors, which includes Gonzaga’s Graham Ike? Who knows? … UCLA’s men head to Eugene tonight to meet the struggling Ducks. … USC is at Iowa. … Colorado needs a spark. … Arizona has received a bunch from a bunch of different players in a bunch of different places.… San Diego State is getting one from a well-traveled player. In an old-school sense. Next up for the Aztecs is Colorado State. … Boise State had a big second half and kept rolling against San Jose State. … Utah State hosts Wyoming on Friday. … Oregon State’s women earned award recognition for their overtime win against Gonzaga. … Utah upset No. 22 West Virginia last night.
• In football news, John Canzano puts the Pac-12 in the spotlight in this column. … Could California need a new general manager? Ron Riviera, who came on board less than a year ago, is reportedly interviewing for an NFL head coaching spot. … One has to wonder, as Stewart Mandel does in The Athletic, if the sport actually wants rules. … The Big Ten released its schedule, a surprisingly balanced one according to Wilner. How does it impact Washington? How about Oregon? USC, which will probably have a complaint or two. UCLA and its first-year head coach? … The Big Ten will be hard to win next season for anyone. … Arizona State’s roster has been rebuilt to a large degree already. … Fresno State received good news on the eligibility front.
Gonzaga: The first of two West Coast Conference regular-season showdowns with Saint Mary’s is on tap Saturday. In McCarthey. Which means, of course, Jim Meehan and Richard Fox discuss it on the latest Zags Basketball Insiders podcast. You can listen here if you like. … The G League journey for recent Gonzaga grad Nolan Hickman is in its first season. But Hickman is more than amiable to talk about how his time in Spokane helped him prepare for it.
EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, Northern Arizona is looking for a new athletic director again, less than a year after Mike Marlowe retired. His successor, Uri Farkas, stepped down Tuesday. … The Montana State women are still winning despite losing nine players off last season’s team. … Three seniors have led the Portland State men to the top of the standings.
Preps: Tuesday was another big night in GSL basketball, with Dave Nichols traveling to Mead to cover the Panthers’ boys and girls games with Ridgeline. The young Falcon girls squad upended the hosts, who played without Idaho-bound Addison Wells Morrison. The Mead boys edged the visitors in the early game. Dave Nichols has that coverage as well as putting together a roundup of all the other games. … Dave also has an update of MODE Prep’s basketball fortunes.
Zephyr: Head coach Nicole Lukic has been busy since taking over mid-season (in October). John Allison checked in with Spokane’s new leader this week for this story.
Kraken: Seattle played host to the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer Tuesday night. And the Washington Capitals. Alex Ovechkin scored, none of his teammates helped and the Kraken rolled 5-1.
Seahawks: The NFC title win is in the rearview mirror. At least it better be. Another test awaits early next month. The Super Bowl. In Santa Clara. Against the Pats. A new adventure and challenge for second-year head coach Mike Macdonald, his staff, the players and the organization behind them. … Is Klint Kubiak still a viable candidate for a head coaching position? … Will Santa Clara and the Super Bowl become a flashpoint for ICE demonstrations? … We found our Sam Darnold story for the day.
Mariners: I wrote about the Rizz retirement news above. And linked Ryan Divish’s story. There are a couple more to pass along. … The news also included more on the 2026 broadcast team. … The M’s added another backup catcher candidate in a trade.
Sounders: A veteran signed a contract extension. … There is more and more talk in Europe of a World Cup boycott.
Golf: Brooks Koepka is back on the PGA Tour.
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• Had some plans for the day. Lots of early errands. But the slick look to the roads may have me waiting a while to leave. It is one of the best aspects of being (semi) retired. No rush. No rush hour. Lots of other hours to access. Maybe I’ll take two naps today. Until later …