Grip on Sports: Even in the offseason, nothing competes with the NFL

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Is there a more dominant professional sport than the NFL? Here were are, in early May, the NBA and NHL playoffs in full swing, baseball underway and the news cycle is still dominated by the league’s draft. Days after it ended. Amazing. Read on.

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• Why is the NFL so big? Interest, which translates into ratings, which translates into money.

And, as we’ve known for years, it’s always smart to follow the money.

Take for example ESPN’s well-documented recent layoffs. The NFL is still the 600-pound gorilla, the network had to pay copious amounts of money to keep the gorilla fed (among other animals in the worldwide leaders’ stable) and the network’s journalists ended up paying the bill.

The NFL draft covers three nights. It is watched by millions. It is talked about endlessly, not only by television commentators but by anyone who has a passing interest in an NFL team, which means a large chunk of Americans.

So we get to Tuesday and there are still stories about it.

It’s that big. Heck, the interest last longer than most of us can stay focused on a local election.

Maybe it’s always been that way. Maybe back in 1957, our dads and moms and granddads and grandmothers spent more time around the water cooler and coffee room in May talking about Y.A. Tittle than they did about Ike, but I don’t think so.

More than likely they were arguing over the relative merits of Mickey Mantle vis a vis Willie Mays, but that’s just conjecture.

What we know for sure, right now, is nothing competes with the NFL.

Some 200-plus folks are drafted over the three days. A like number are signed as free agents. And only a small percentage of them will be playing next season.

And yet it’s treated like Moses coming off the mountain.

“Who did we get in the fifth round,” isn’t on the tablets, but it might as well be.

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WSU: Guess what leads this section of the links? Yep, the NFL and news about Robert Barber, which Jacob Thorpe covers in this story, as well as others. That includes Luke Falk’s prospects in next year’s draft (360 days or so away), which Jacob also covers, and Mike Leach’s thoughts on Gabe Marks not being drafted via the Times’ Stefanie Loh. … She also has more on Barber and Falk. … But that’s not all the news that came out of Pullman yesterday. Jacob passes along a basketball signing, 2A player of the year Roberto Gittens from Foss High in Tacoma. The signing made Cougar basketball fans happy and was noted in West Side newspapers. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12, besides NFL draft stories, about next year and the recent past for Colorado and Arizona, there is just one more football piece worth passing along. It’s about Oregon. … A former WSU assistant basketball coach has found new employment.

Gonzaga: So much for the hope of plugging the best grad transfer guard into next year’s Bulldog backcourt. Elijah Brown, from New Mexico, has decided to attend Oregon. Jim Meehan has the story.

Chiefs: With the bantam draft coming up, Josh Horton took the time to feature the Chiefs’ Jaret Anderson-Dolan.

Preps: I don’t know how much application there is to Washington and Idaho, but I thought this Los Angeles Times story was interesting.

Mariners: So how was the M’s April? Pretty cruddy if you ask me. Or Jerry Dipoto. But he has to fix it and he believes he can.

Seahawks: Guess what. There is draft news. At least free agent news. Yep, the Hawks signed a couple quarterbacks to help with practice. And the guys they drafted late and signed after the draft? They often have a huge chip on their shoulder. Believe it or not, the extra weight helps.

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• The M’s are back at it tonight against the Angels, one opponent that is having as much trouble with its pitching staff as Seattle, and for a similar reason. Until later …