Controlling interest in the Sacramento Kings NBA franchise has been purchased by Chris Hansen's investor group, according to multiple media outlets Sunday night citing NBA sources. The sale reportedly is for $525 million, which includes the Maloof family's 53 percent share and the share of one minority owner.

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One Seattle way to look at the the arrival of the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl -- other than plunging a finger down the nearest available throat -- is that it sets up the 49ers-Seahawks twice-a-year meetings in the NFC West as happenings, not just games.

Niners quarterback Colin Kaepernick did Sunday virtually the identical thing to Atlanta as Seahawks QB Russell Wilson did a week earlier in the Georgia Dome -- come back from a big early deficit to take the lead in the fourth quarter. They've been twinned up a lot.

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Just as Aristotle observed that nature abhors a vacuum, so does human nature abhor a coincidence. Random events happening simultaneously bother us. Compulsion is strong to connect dots/pixels until it makes a picture, however irrelevant, but preferably suitable for Instagram. Once resolved, we can return to the TV and "Hoarders."

This week in sports delivered us a cavalcade of crap in the persons of Lance Armstrong, Manti Te'o and Ryan Leaf. At risk of ever more lethal brevity in a 140-character maximum world, here is my summary:

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Certainly they are not the best team. But the Seattle Mariners may be the greenest team. Their passion for recycling outdoes the most neurotic Seattle tree huggers.

This time, they brought back Mike Morse. A little earlier this off-season, they brought back Raul Ibanez. And even though he was never a Mariner, Jason Bay has a home on the Eastside.

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As with thousands of Seahawks fans, general manager John Schneider was searching for coping mechanisms. The high of the Seahawks' comeback to a 28-27 lead in Atlanta was so high, and the low of losing the playoff game 30 seconds later was so low, that many this week feel as Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner did in his October free fall from space -- only without the parachute.

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The harrowing, dramatic way the Seahawks' season ended has inspired many post-game coulda-shoulda-woulda speculations about the plays and calls that would have averted the 30-28 defeat in Atlanta Sunday to the Falcons. But perhaps the biggest chronic problem was addressed sideways Monday in Pete Carroll's final seasonal press conference.

Asked how rookie defensive end Bruce Irvin played in his first start for injured Chris Clemons, the Seahawks coach said, "He played OK."

Interpreting from the "Carroll codebook," that means the coach was disappointed. Big time.

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ATLANTA -- Despair was thick in the Seahawks locker room, profound as any I've seen. Thirty minutes after the game, many players were in full uniform with towels over heads, staring into the floor as if solace might erupt from the concrete.

Richard Sherman, the verbose cornerback who is fated to die in mid-sentence, waved off reporters. Safety Earl Thomas shook his head no to questions. A third Seahawk All Pro selection, center Max Unger, almost got away before I stepped between him and the exit.

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ATLANTA -- Upon arrival here Saturday night, the music on shuttle bus to the hotel was playing the theme song from "The Andy Griffith Show." Honest.

Could have been worse. No one aboard was a lightly-toothed banjo player.

When I reached my hotel room, whistling continued -- from me, watching the final quarter of the San Francisco 49ers' 45-31 slapdown of the Green Bay behind the 181 yards rushing by quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Not to mention two touchdown passes -- three, if you count the pick six he threw to the Packers.

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This is the Seahawks' seventh appearance in the past 10 NFL postseasons. It should feel normal, expected, almost like Gonzaga in the NCAA tourney field. Making the playoffs should be old hat, not nouveau chapeau. But somehow, this time time feels fresh.

It has to do with a culmination. Over the past four seasons, the Seahawks have changed CEOs, GMs, coaches and all but two players, CB Marcus Trufant and LB Leroy Hill.  Paul Allen still owns the team, but everything else has been headsnaps, so many and some so odd that the feeling was more bewilderment more than excitement. Was Terrell Owens really here for a week?

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The NFL season is in full poach-a-coach mode, and it has arrived upon the Seahawks doorstep: With a quarter of NFL head coaches fired, both coordinators are in play for some of the vacancies.

It is not unusual. It is always awkward.

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At a press conference Wednesday at the Filipino Community Center in south Seattle to announce his bid for re-election, Mayor Mike McGinn was wonderfully ironic in his ignorance about a rumor that had Chris Hansen buying the Kings for $500 million and moving the NBA team from Sacramento to Seattle for next season.

"I know as much about it as you do," he volunteered to a packed room before being asked. "If it's true, ain't it cool?"

Perfect.

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Chris Clemons, the Seahawks' premier pass rusher, will undergo surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, as well as meniscus tears, and will be lost for the remainder of the season.

On the Monday prior to the division-round matchup against the Falcons at 10 a.m. Sunday in Atlanta, coach Pete Carroll did not attempt to minimize the absence of Clemons, who went down Sunday in the 24-14 win at sloppy FedEx Field in Landover, MD. He has 33½ sacks in his three years in Seattle, including a team-high 11½ this season.

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LANDOVER, MD. -- Down 14 points at the stomping feet of the largest playoff crowd in the football history of the nation's capital, while attempting to do something a Seattle team had not done in 30 years, the conclusion was plain:

The Seahawks had the Redskins right where they wanted them.

That was not apparent to many, maybe even among the Seahawks. Except for one guy.

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WASHINGTON --  The "Hawks Nest" in the nation's capital shares some touches with its Clink end zone-section namesake in Seattle: It's crowded, noisy, near a construction zone and has a Starbucks nearby. As well as surrounded by the the traditional metropolitan trappings of skateboarders and homeless grate-sleepers.

But the The Penn Quarter Sports Tavern, a block north of the National Archives and facing the horse's rear end of a statue bearing Civil War hero Gen. Winfield S. Hancock, has the distinction of being the 16-week home of Seahawks fans forced to live and work in the lesser Washington.

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WASHINGTON -- For believers in sporting omens, here's one for you:

For the NFC wild-card playoff match Sunday against the Redskins, the Seahawks are staying at the same hotel on Capitol Hill as the Sonics when they won Seattle's only modern major pro sports championship.

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Ali-Frazier, Chamberlain-Russell, Palmer-Nicklaus, Rice-Sanders, Federer-Nadal.

Or Harding-Kerrigan?

Where does Russell Wilson vs. Robert Griffin III fit in the sports pantheon of great individual rivalries?

Um, well, nowhere. Yet. But we'll all be checking in Sunday night on the topic, right? No reason not to get a head start now.

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In 2013, there's some sports stuff I want to hear, and don't want to hear.

WHAT I DON'T WANT TO HEAR

"Russell Wilson is slow to get up."

"The Big East Conference is pleased to announce the addition of the University of Hawaii, and the Sorbonne."

"The initial excavation revealed the remains of a prehistoric village that carbon-dates to at least 10,000 years ago. So until researchers more fully examine the extraordinary discovery, the arena construction at this site is on hold until further notice.'

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As the NFL world convulsed on Black Monday, as Robert Griffin III limped around FedEx Field with a sore knee that doesn't figure to heal by Sunday, the Seahawks sit in the dark and damp in Renton like a wise cat who knows what it's like to catch a bird in flight.

Seven coaches and five general managers were fired Monday -- more may have been tied to railroad tracks after this is written -- in a gruesome sign of the ruthlessly impatient nature of the NFL. Meanwhile, the Seahawks sit quietly,  11 wins and a 10-year quarterback in hand.

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Believe it or not, the NFL's most adept rookie decision-maker, Russell Wilson, had a moment of indecision Sunday. Tied at 13 inside two minutes, his first-and-goal-from-the-1 quandary was to run from the pocket for the game-winning touchdown, or throw for the game-winning touchdown -- and break the single-season rookie record set by NFL demi-god Peyton Manning.

After a split second of pondering a blast of individual glory, he decided to keep running.

"I realized," he said of pursuing the passing record, "that's not me."

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