There will be a draft in most everyone’s living room tonight
A GRIP ON SPORTS • The NFL draft is tonight. It is the great divider among football fans. You either watch it or you don't. You are either fascinated by it or you aren't. There is very little middle ground. Read on.
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• That being said, I am firmly ambivalent about the whole deal. I tell myself it isn't worth wasting my time watching, then I find myself caught up in the action. Heck, last year, when I had to be somewhere, I listened on the radio. Yes, I listened to a bunch of guys, some of whom were barely understandable, talking about 40 times and suspect hands and the ability to bench press a Buick. What a waste of three, four, five hours. And yet I keep coming back. I watch Roger Goodell hug a quarterback that's about his size and then try to get his arms around an offensive lineman who dwarves him. I watch Chris Berman's lips move on and on and on, all sound and fury, signifying nothing. I watch as one guy, the year's sacrificial lamb, sits at a table for an excruciating amount of time as everyone around him gets up and moves on to their commissioner hug. Yes, I watch way too much of something that really doesn't matter. Not the act of drafting players. That matters a lot. Teams are built, teams fall apart, all because of who they pick in the draft. No, the draft is important. The ancillary stuff, the TV show? That doesn't matter. If the NFL held the draft in a parking lot of a Cedar Rapids' Safeway, the outcome would be the same, the importance of the players would not be diminished. It just wouldn't be the great time suck it is now. Not for the NFL teams, their time still would be sucked up. They have to invest the time. No, I'm talking about our time. Us clucks who sit in front of our TVs and soak it all in. Suck in every word from Mike Maycock and Ron Jaworski. It's like we're waiting for Moses to come down the mountain with the commandments and then we criticize the order – "Honor thy Father and Mother is only fourth? C'mon man, it's a No. 2 pick for sure." We wait for our team's picks, have a player in mind that we are sure is the difference maker and, when our team goes with someone else, start cussing under our breath. Of course, two years later, when the pick we wanted is out of the league due to a lack of ability and the guy our team took is a Pro Bowler, we say we were on-board from the get-go. It's the way these things work. The converse is true as well. If our guy is the star, and the guy in our uniform is a stiff, we make sure everyone knows we wanted the other guy big time. If they had only listened. After all, we spent three, four hours examining these guys. And listening to Chris Berman. We know what's up.
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• WSU: The Cougars faded badly the last two rounds of the Pac-12 golf championships and finished 10th. Jacob Thorpe has the story of Wednesday's final day, in which a record was set and another championship won by Stanford. ... Spring football may be over but that doesn't mean football workouts are. Jacob also delves into the schedule for the summer. ... As for today, Jacob has a live chat planned and has a morning post with links. ... Connor Halliday's mom has a piece on Peter King's Sports Illustrated site. It's worth reading.
• Idaho: Spring football is just a memory in Moscow as well, but Sean Kramer has a look at the post-spring depth chart. ... The Vandals won the Big Sky golf title in impressive style.
• Chiefs: The WHL's Western Conference final is tied at two after Kelowna earned a 3-2 win in Portland last night.
• Shock: Terrance Taylor (pictured) is the man in the middle of the Shock defense. And, at 6-foot and 300 pounds, he's a big man in the middle. Jim Meehan has more in this feature.
• Preps: Thursday is the day for Greg Lee's track notebook as well as the area leaders. ... Greg also has a notebook that covers news in other sports, including girls' basketball.
• Seahawks: As we said, the NFL draft begins tonight, though the Hawks may not have a say in who is taken. They don't have a pick scheduled until the second round, No. 63 overall, but trades do happen. ... There were rumors of one last night, with Bruce Irvin's name in the middle of it. Even if the rumor is not true, it doesn't look as if the Hawks will pick up Irvin's option. ... The Hawks have been good at picking late-round talent in recent years, even if the most recent picks haven't had a chance to show what they can do. This year, these are the areas they need to hit with their 11 picks.
• Mariners: The M's are on a Texas-sized roll, thanks to the Rangers. Seattle swept the three-game series, winning 5-2 last night even though Felix Hernandez didn't have his best stuff. Felix is 4-0 this season. ... Kyle Seager wasn't in the starting lineup, though he did play late. ... Nelson Cruz (pictured) was in the lineup as the DH – he's on the All-Star ballot at that spot – and hit a BB of a home run to jump-start the offense.
• Sounders: The move of Brad Evans to center back seems to working. ... The Sounders are not playing in this summer's International Champions Cup because they are focusing on the Champions League matches instead.
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• If you are a draft watcher, enjoy yourself this evening. As I said, I may join you for a while. Until later ...
