A Grip on Sports: A sharp earthquake hits the NFL, a smaller one MLB contenders and the landscape-changing shift caused by WSU’s Mike Leach is finally recognized
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Holy Toledo. The Rams are the Super Bowl favorites now? And the Mariners are the hottest team in baseball? Has some sort of seismic event shifted Los Angeles north and Seattle south?
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• June 1 is the date the real NFL trades happen. It’s a demarcation day for the league under their complicated salary rules.
But oftentimes the major ones leak out early, such as the Eagles sending dissatisfied star receiver A.J. Brown to New England, a long-decided-upon deal that become official Monday.
Others, like the one that shook up the league yesterday, don’t even merit a Page Six rumor or Interweb gossip. How could Myles Garrett, two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year and heir to Aaron Donald’s crown among D-linemen, be dealt to Donald’s old team without it showing up somewhere?
No matter. It’s done. The 30-year-old Garrett, who grabbed 125 sacks while playing in Cleveland, will be wearing a L.A. Ram helmet in the upcoming season. And Verse, potentially an unstoppable force off the edge that was stopped in the Rams’ playoff loss in Philadelphia, is headed to Ohio. Along with three draft picks, including a first in 2027.
That’s a seismic event, certainly, that will cause many sleepless nights in the Seattle coaching staff offices. No matter how much some might want to downplay it. Verse was hard to game-plan for, Garrett, at the top of his game, resides somewhere next to impossible.
Just as, in Los Angeles, the Rams’ still reside in a lesser neighborhood than the Dodgers. The two-time defending MLB champions’ woes this year were knocked off the front pages this morning – that’s good for the Rams – but will be back there the next time Shohei Ohtani pitches. And will stay until such time as the World Series ends – win or lose – or the Rams actually win another Lombardi Trophy.
The former still seems almost preordained. Or should we use the term pre-purchased? The Dodgers’ massive payroll gives them a type of fire insurance each season when injuries burn through their payroll. An insurance that pays out in October.
The M’s? Their insurance is the bumper crop of starting pitching arms they’ve harvested over the past few years. Give Jerry Dipoto and his gang of nerds – that’s used affectionally here by the way – credit. They have a system that identifies and improves not only starters but relievers as well.
Is that pitching that has underpinned their recent seven-game winning streak, baseball’s best by three games. That the Rangers have the second-best means Seattle’s lead in the American League West remains at a paltry 2½ games. The M’s slow start? It means they are still a paltry three games over .500.
But their week-long revival has pushed them back into the conversation among teams that can win a Series this year. And that’s something. In fact, though L.A. and maybe the Yankees or Rays remain the favorite in just-about everyone’s eyes, at least some have wandered. And landed on the shiny Seattle pitching staff, it’s recent timely hitting and, yes, wondered if the preseason prognostications were actually spot-on.
And that is a different type of seismic shift.
• During Mike Leach’s first five seasons in Pullman I had a weird job. I would travel to either Martin Stadium or the KXLY radio studios and join Dennis Patchin or Derek Deis on the Cougs’ postgame radio show.
And answer telephone calls from, after the first few losses, a WSU congregation losing faith. My job, in essence, was to try to talk its members off the edge.
The running game stinks. The quarterback should not be in the shotgun every down. The fourth-down decisions are awful.
At times I felt a little one of those Old Testament prophets we learned about in Sunday school, trying to keep the chosen people in line await the messiah. The slings and arrows were flying fast and furious back then, though I’m pretty sure the folks who were critical will deny it today.
What Leach was doing, and had done in Lubbock previously, was leading nothing more than an offensive revolution in football. Changing the way all teams, from high school to the NFL, would run offense in the 21st Century. And like all revolutionaries, his views were not well understood by the masses nor accepted by the sport’s bourgeoisie ruling class.
They are now.
In hindsight, the LaVell Edwards acolyte from Cody, Wyo., saw the game’s future long before others. Teamed with Hal Mumme to offer a new blueprint. And built homes as view-changing as Frank Lloyd Wright in Lubbock, Pullman and Starkville.
The building process took time, though. It showed at Texas Tech. At WSU. At Mississippi State. Losses happened. So did, when the construction was complete, wins. A lot of them at schools that rarely had as many.
But the myopic rules of the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame did not take into account revolutionary change. All that mattered was a coach’s win/loss record. That it be more than six out every 10 games to appear on the ballot. Leach was a win or two short. The door was shut.
Until last year. The threshold was dropped to .595. Leach’s record? Yep, .596. Call it the Leach Rule if you want, but I’ll call it a recognition of a revolutionary manifesto. The Air Raid is accepted. It’s most visible apostle as well. He will be on this year’s ballot.
You know, the short passes into the flat were actually disguised runs. The constant quarterback/receiver reads were actually genius. And the stubbornness that ruled out the QB from ever taking a snap under center, even on fourth-and-an-inch was actually, well, just another sign that geniuses make mistakes too.
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WSU: Greg Woods has a story on Leach’s appearance on the Hall of Fame ballot, giving some context to those too young to understand his impact in Pullman. The story also notes Washington State quarterback Ryan Leaf, who played for the Cougars while Leach was in Texas, is on the ballot as well. Also listed? Current head coach Kirby Moore’s older brother Kellen, who starred at Boise State. … Moore is out recruit players who fit his offensive philosophy, including tight ends, a position Leach never used. Greg has a story on the first tight end in the 2027 class to tell the Cougs yes. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, we linked Jon Wilner’s mailbag yesterday in the Mercury News. It is on the S-R site today. … John Canzano also has a mailbag from Monday we can pass along. … The Rose Bowl could be played at night in 2027 as part of the CFP playoffs. … What type of roster has Washington’s football program put together for the fall? … An Oregon assistant coach is facing a drunk driving charge. … We can pass along another story on Utah’s private equity fallout. … Boise State’s blue turf does have a history, doesn’t it? … How does the national media view Colorado State’s chances in the new Pac-12? … In baseball news, the Super Regionals are finally set, with the West Coast represented by Oregon, Cal Poly and USC. … The Trojans moved on for the first time in a couple decades with a win over Texas A&M on Monday. … Oregon State did not reach its goal in its last season as an independent. … Recruiting never stops. Nor does transferring these days. Washington lost its best player to the portal. … In basketball news, Arizona’s men have set the dates for some events.
Gonzaga: The Zags are well represented within a pool of Canadian players in anticipation of the 2027 FIBA World Cup. The Nembhard brothers. Kelly Olynyk. Kyle Wiltjer. Theo Lawson has the story, adding the nugget the coach, Gordon Herbert, played at North Idaho College and Idaho. Though everyone called him Gordy back then. … Wilner returns to the S-R’s pages with his revamped Top 25 for next basketball season. He’s moved the Bulldogs up to 10th after the portal additions. … We can also pass along the latest rankings from Sports Illustrated as well.
EWU: The Eagle men added transfer guard Isak Homelius from Western Texas College yesterday. It is their fifth addition. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Montana announced its latest hall of fame class. So did Northern Arizona. … The best overall men’s program in the conference? This year it was Montana State. … Athletes from Idaho State and Weber State moved on to the NCAA track meet.
Indians: Dave Nichols’ weekly notebook has one disappointing piece of news. Spokane has been eliminated from the first-half playoff chase with a little more than two weeks to go.
Seahawks: We linked a couple stories above that appeared in the S-R concerning the Garrett trade. We do so again here. But also add some more from around the nation. … The Times delves deeply into the Russell Wilson retirement – that’s what it is – news by looking at his Hall of Fame chances as well as his broadcasting outlook.
Mariners: Did we say something about timely hitting above? Sure did. That continued Monday with Cole Young’s single in the 10th lifting the M’s to a 3-2 win over the visiting Mets. We linked the story above as well. … Cal Raleigh’s rehab continues in Seattle.
Kraken: There is another part-owner that joined the group owning Seattle’s NHL franchise. Could Melinda French Gates, Bill’s former spouse, also be interested in the Seahawks?
Storm: Speaking of woes (and we have recently about the Storm), Seattle’s offensive one resurfaced last night in a blow out loss to Dallas.
Tennis: It turns out Serena Williams was just mostly done. Not done-done.
NHL: The Stanley Cup Finals begin tonight in Carolina. We have a preview of the series between Las Vegas and the Hurricanes we can pass along.
World Cup: Just how is the U.S.’s pool shaping up?
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• I’m back on something of a more normal schedule. Until the next trip or doctor’s appointment or jury duty or whatever pops up. Until later …