NFL free agency begins informally Monday, and officially at 1 p.m. Wednesday, when the Seahawks bosses will find the walls closing in, desperate for an artist to draw a cartoon door to facilitate an escape.

So far this off-season, they have just four draft picks, a bit of free cash and the stares of the sports world upon them, seeking to know what they shall do about the demands from Russell Wilson.

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In a major blow to the booming cardboard-cutout, faux-fan industry, but in a major buzz for humanoid fans and the teams they love, people will soon populate stadiums, yards and other gathering spots in the state of Washington.

By March 22, all 39 counties will have some COVID-19 fan attendance restrictions removed for outdoor events such Mariners, Sounders and OL Reign games, as well as high school sports, rodeos, motorsports and other outdoor events.

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If it weren't for Gonzaga, men's college basketball in the state of Washington in 2020-21 would have collapsed on itself like a late-stage star, becoming a black hole from which not even light can escape.

After winning the West Coast Conference tourney championship Tuesday to finish 26-0, the Zags head into the NCAA tournament as the nation's top-ranked team, where they have been all year.

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Carlos Dunlap was a great midseason competitive fit for the Seahawks in 2020. But in 2021, the defensive end was going to be a burdensome financial fit. So now he'll become a free agent next week when the NFL's annual talent bazaar gets underway, according to a tweet Monday morning from ESPN.com's Adam Schefter saying Dunlap was cut.

The fate of QB Russell Wilson is not the only heavy lift for the Seahawks off-season. Just the most unexpected one.

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Every day that draws closer to the March 17 start of NFL free agency ratchets up the frenzy around the future of Russell Wilson, compounded by the unclear futures of fellow top-tier QBs.

The latest is a report Friday from the Chicago Tribune that the said the Bears, the apparent least likely of four teams to which Wilson supposedly would accept a trade (also, the Raiders, Cowboys and Saints), "have prioritized making a run" at Wilson, although sources were neither identified nor quoted.

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In a game obsessed by predictive analytics, it is sweet when randomness raises its goofy head and delivers a chef's kiss.

In the fourth inning of a spring training game against the Chicago Cubs Wednesday, manager Scott Servais was answering a live-TV ESPN interview question in the dugout when the Mariners' star-in-waiting, rookie Jarred Kelenic, was at the plate. He powered up the Mariners' first exhibition home run, an opposite-field job, no less.

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I've read a few stories during the shutdown about what is called the attention economy. The concept is not directly about sports, but it is about many things in the world that have changed in the 21st century, which includes sports.

The attention economy was first described in 1971, then the phrase was used in the 1990s and early 2000s to describe the economic period that followed, in succession, the agricultural economy, the industrial economy, and the information economy. In 2007, the year Facebook introduced its News Feed and Apple debuted the first smart phone, everything accelerated.

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Besides Russell Wilson, Seahawks drama also surrounds LB L.J. Wright and whether the pending free agent will return to Seattle for an 11th season, after what was arguably his best year as a pro.

His play was deemed sufficiently worthy in 2020 to earn the popular vote for the Men's Sports Award presented Saturday night at the 86th annual Star of the Year Awards. He's free to plant the trophy on GM John Schneider's desk and say, "See?"

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The staredown between Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson hasn't changed, although The Athletic did a good a job Thursday explaining the history and context of the fraying that has captivated the NFL, and by extension, most of sports.

The pressure on the Seahawks, however, did go up a bit later Thursday. Wilson's agent, Mark Rodgers, told ESPN's Adam Schefter that, while no trade has been requested, there are now just four teams for which he would agree to waive his no-trade clause:

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Where would the Mariners be this week if chairman John Stanton had fired Kevin Mather in 2018?  That's when it became publicly known the club was sued by three female employees, two of whom accused the club president of sexual harassment, and accepted financial settlements.

The players would be at Arizona spring training playing and talking ball, not hearing things like this from staff ace Marco Gonzales:

"Sometimes a common goal can guide (a team)," he said Tuesday. "Sometimes a common enemy can do the same, if not greater. I think that's the boat we're in right now."

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In 1987, George Argyros tried to buy the San Diego Padres while owning the Seattle Mariners. The shocking stunt broke every ownership rule, custom and norm in MLB. Even his close friend, Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, felt compelled to fine his pal, a California real estate developer who bought the club in 1981, $10,000 for calling the Padres manager, a violation of the rules against tampering with other teams.

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If arrogant swagger is a valuable part of a sports championship team, Kevin Mather is more than ready to do his part.

The Mariners' seldom-heard-from president told the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club Feb. 5 that after the club wins a World Series, it will stage a celebration in downtown Seattle that will make the Seahawks 2014 Super Bowl version "look like a neighborhood Fourth of July parade. We're gonna do it right. I'm looking forward to delivering with that.

"I think we're on the verge of something special."

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In terms of enlightenment among among global sports operations, the NBA is generally considered to be the leader of the pack. That doesn't mean they are any less ruthless when it comes to, say, ripping up one of its franchises and replanting it elsewhere, mostly out of spite.

But it usually doesn't miss a chance to be a social-issues trail blazer (not looking at you, Portland), at least when it doesn't cost them money.

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Infinity, by any definition, is a mysterious concept. Perhaps the only way for a non-mathematician to appreciate endlessness or boundlessness is to use an alternative term more understandable.

I suggest Marinerness -- a time/space quality of being everywhere, but nowhere.

As Seattle fans this month enter their 44th year of the experience of baseball infinity, I doubt further explanation is necessary.

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In sorting through the latest NFL parlor game, WDRW  -- What Does Russell Want? -- I remembered an answer to a Zoom question Wilson offered Dec. 17, a few days after the Seahawks beat the New York Jets, 40-3.

That was a high point that seemed to signal a seasonal restoration of a dominant offense, even if the Jets were winless, and spoke well to Seattle's chances in the pending playoffs.

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Just for, um, fun.

Here's a random sampling of pro-team superstars, and how long they lasted with their first major league team, followed by career length. Not saying there's anything immediate happening in Seattle, but suddenly there's a whole lotta WTFs in the air regarding a certain quarterback who has become the town gossip.

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The business of the franchise quarterback is the most compelling personnel theater in the NFL. By extension, it's the most compelling non-game theater in sports, even more than a similar drama with the NBA.

In basketball, superstars dictating their desired employers, and hustling up a superstar buddy or two to join him, has become standard operating procedure. But the smaller number of players makes positive outcomes far more likely in hoops, because football requires 22 starters and 53 total, and has separate units for offense and defense.

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If the panicky desperation of Patrick Mahomes Sunday didn't remind you of Russell Wilson in recent years barely running ahead of the bulls of the NFL, you may have just moved to the area in the past month.

But the biggest local takeaway in Tampa Bay's surprising 31-9 evisceration of Kansas City (box) in Super Bowl LV was the echo from 2014 and Super Bowl XLVIII: In pinnacle NFL games, a great defense pops off rivets of a good offense.

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Congratulations are in order for Tom Flores, who was the lone finalist in the coach category and will be part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 2021. Word of the overdue selection came during the annual NHL Honors program Saturday night ahead of Super Bowl LV.

Flores won two Super Bowls as coach of the Raiders. He also won titles as a player and assistant coach, a three-job distinction he shares only with fellow Hall of Famer Mike Ditka. Flores was the first Latino to be head coach and a quarterback in the NFL. Bravo.

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One of the consequences of the pandemic for many is an abrupt re-jiggering of timelines, because the future is no longer what it was purported to be: Certain, and depending on age, long-term.

Threats are sudden, existential and many. My favorite retort to such thinking was rolled out years ago by Seattle author and former Post-Intelligencer writer and copy editor Tom Robbins in his masterpiece, Still Life With Woodpecker.

"It's never too late," he wrote, "to have a happy childhood."

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