After the dishevelment that ended the previous season, the Sounders Saturday tidied up a bit to start 2014. The fans did their part, providing another sellout and another spectacular pre-game tifo while chanting through an afternoon-long waterfall.

The players did their part, getting what amounts to a walk-off score in the 94th and final minute that broke with last season and broke the hearts of Sporting Kansas City, the defending MLS champion. It all came together in the Seattle sports tradition -- audibly.

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To little surprise, DE Michael Bennett, the Seahawks' top free agent, will enter the NFL market starting Saturday rather than accept the team's pre-market offer. He played on a one-year deal worth $5 million last season, when he led Seattle with 8.5 sacks.

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On a trip to Minneapolis Wednesday to scout for a future outdoor game, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman threw in the direction of Seattle another tease about expansion.

“There’s a lot of interest," he told the Star-Tribune. "We’re hearing from multiple groups in Seattle . . .  in Vegas, in Kansas City, in Quebec City. We haven’t decided to engage in a formal expansion process, but as we always do, we listen to expressions of interest.

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CB Brandon Browner, a key figure in the Seahawks' "Legion of Boom" now a free agent, wrote on his Twitter account Tuesday that he was reinstated by the NFL after receiving a suspension late last season that would have lasted through 2014.

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Give Chris Petersen the Oscar for spring football practice candor.

"Spring ball is usually pretty ugly," he said Monday. "It really is. All it takes is one or two guys to not be on the same page and everything looks terrible."

And he was talking about practice play, not QB Cyler Miles or WR Damore'ea Stringfellow, who allegedly did their own special version of ugly.

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Now that David Stern has retired, perhaps the NBA is oozing toward the unfamiliar ground of honesty when it comes to Seattle. During an interview Saturday, new commissioner Adam Silver offered a quick retort to his questioner, author and noted contrarian Malcolm Gladwell.

"It has been said that keeping Seattle open was the stick to keep other teams in line . . . " Gladwell began.

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Ken Griffey Jr. and Lou Piniella usually would wait until the baseball season began before complaining that the Mariners needed another bat. But times have changed, and a new tradition has begun. Newcomer Robinson Cano is playing general manager right from spring training, lobbying specifically for the return of DH Kendrys Morales.

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VANCOUVER, B.C.  -- As far as the game Wednesday at Rogers Arena between Vancouver Canucks and St. Louis Blues, which combined had 16 players returning over 12 time zones from the Winter Olympics hockey tournament, they should have stayed on the sandy shores of the Russian Riviera.

Canucks 1, Blues 0, and zero face-splitting fights. Ice dancing had more cross-checks.

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If you can't get enough of the palace intrigue in the 49ers' principality, you must be a Seahawks fan. The region-wide giggle-fest is beginning to show on seismometers. A Beat Quake.

Or if you prefer psychology to geology, the term is scha·den·freu·de (shahd-n-froi-duh), noun: Satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else's misfortune.

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It's a little harsh to say "never mind" to the debut season of Robinson Cano as a Mariner. But the pressure on him in 2014 is far less than on general manager Jack Zduriencik and his previous hires. He's the guy who convinced CEO Howard Lincoln to walk from the major leagues' kiddy pool to the adult swim party by saying the rest of the team is ready.

Hoo-boy.

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After a Winter Olympics ended Sunday in a country that discriminates legislatively against gays, a new day dawned in America when Jason Collins returned to the NBA as the first openly gay player among the four major sports leagues.

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It's one thing to resupply at Walmart with the pleated khakis his wife says she keeps throwing out. That's eccentric. But allowing yourself to be traded from one of the best gigs in the NFL to perhaps the worst job is street-rat crazy.

Yet that's apparently what 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh, Seattle's favorite villain, was contemplating a few days after San Francisco lost the NFC championship to the Seahawks.

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Sounders star Clint Dempsey isn't having a great time in London, where he's on a two-month loan to fading Fulham FC. But he seemed to be enjoying himself on ESPN's "Highly Questionable" talk show where he unveiled his skills as a rapper. If you want to skip the lame questions, his music-free demo is about 4:30 into the video.

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Heckuva month, February. Aside from the Super Bowl in the first few days, it's normally the slowest month in the sports calendar. Not so far. I've always said any time I'm learning something, it's a good day. Or, as it might be put in the vernacular of figure skating: Hitting my twizzle. Four worthy things I learned:

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To the surprise of no one, Adam Silver, in his first state of the league press conference Saturday as NBA commissioner, showed no inclination to offer expansion to Seattle or any market any time soon.

"It's not on the top of my list," Silver told reporters gathered for the NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans, responding to a question about international expansion. "That goes for domestic expansion."

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After the NFL draft in May, every NFL team that did not draft Missouri DE Michael Sam will be asked why. All of them will say more or less the same thing: "We had others rated higher at his position," "He wasn't a need for us," "We were hoping to get him as an undrafted free agent."

Um, how about the fact that he is gay? "Not a factor." "We don't care about that." "He is? We'll be darned."

Or as the crew on "Seinfeld" put it: "Not that there's anything wrong with that."

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At some point in this whipsaw of a season, the Huskies might figure themselves out. They might land on a starting lineup, find some composure on the road, and calm down enough to chill on offense and drill on defense.

Kinda like what happened in the second half Wednesday night at Hec Ed against a good Stanford team.

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Somewhere between the Seahawks afterglow and the delightful new Winter Olympics competitions of Find The Elevator Car and Bathroom-Door Breakdowns, the Mariners season arises tenuously as daffodil leaves, looking for the warmth of attention. It is a struggle, but the Mariners have again committed to another 162 games. So we shall look.

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The Seahawks have never been bashful about speaking up. Now that they've walked their talk, there's no reason to stop now. In a phone interview with NBC's Pro Football Talk Friday, LB K.J. Wright was asked what the outcomes would be if the Seahawks and Denver Broncos played 100 times.

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The Seahawks weren't the only big winners from Seattle in New York last weekend. In an annual fundraising event at the Super Bowl to help feed the homeless, Seattle restaurateur John Howie helped raise $83,000 to win the Kick Hunger Challenge trophy, dominating the field as much as the Seahawks dominated the Broncos.

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