Wherever he goes, Odell Beckham Jr. draws a crowd, which could come in handy should the free agent choose the Seahawks. / Erik Drost via Wikimedia Commons For anyone who listened to Pete Carroll rave about the guy and his connection to Russell Wilson, it was hard not to be convinced. “They have communicated and been together at a couple of different things that they connect at a very high level, he said,” the Seahawks coach said. “He’s just on a high level. So we are very fortunate to have him. I think he will make a very fast transition.…
Author: Art Thiel
Art Thiel
Never having met a metaphor he could not twist beyond recognition, Art has been illuminating, agitating, amusing and annoying Puget Sound sports readers for a long time. Along with Steve Rudman, he co-founded Sports Press Northwest because it didnt seem right that the Google monster should aggregate daily journalism into oblivion without at least a flesh wound from somebody. Thiel and Rudman labored under the Seattle Post-Intelligencer globe until the print edition died an undeserved death in March, 2009. Art continued on at its online successor seattlepi.com while working on SPNWs creation. His radio commentaries can be heard Friday and Saturday mornings and Friday afternoon on KPLU-FM 88.9. In 2003 he wrote the definitive book about the Seattle Mariners, Out of Left Field, which became a regional bestseller. In 2009, along with Rudman and KJR 950 afternoon host Mike Gastineau, Thiel authored The Great Book of Seattle Sports Lists, a cross between historylink.org and Mad Magazine that has become mandatory reading for any sports fan who has an indoor bathroom. A graduate of Pacific Lutheran University as well as two dead papers and a live one, the News Tribune of Tacoma, he has become a fan of entrepreneurial online journalism because it allows him to continue a lifelong passion to take the English language to places it rarely visits willingly, and does not involve the cleaning of kennels or stables.
Junior Adams, left, is interim offensive coordinator and Bob Gregory is interim head coach for the Huskies game Saturday with Arizona State. / Art Thiel, Sportspress Northwest The two most important representatives of the University of Washington’s near-term football future were not in attendance at Monday’s presser following the suspension of head coach Jimmy Lake. Jen Cohen and Sam Huard. Lake wasn’t there. He is likely a figurative dead man walking.
John Donovan didn’t get to finish his second season as Huskies offensive coordinator. / UW Athletics Apparently the blame for the flaming stagecoach heading for the cliff is the guy riding shotgun. John Donovan was fired Sunday. The University of Washington offensive coordinator was in charge of the unit that had just three first downs through three quarters Saturday against Oregon Ducks, an incontrovertible fact that teeters on the frontier of absurdity. But it was hardly worse than scoring seven points in the season-opening against Montana, which resulted in the Grizzlies’ first win over Washington since a little after World…
Huskies coach Jimmy Lake, here talking to CB Brendan Radley-Hiles earlier this season, struck a player on the sidelines Saturday night at Husky Stadium. / Drew Sellers, Sportspress Northwest A bad week for Washington coach Jimmy Lake appeared to end ignominiously Saturday night at Husky Stadium when, on top of calling for a punt on the last down when a non-zero chance remained to tie Oregon — an astonishing possibility given the game-long poverty of the offense — the snap flew out of the end zone and headed toward Lake Washington. Then things, already wet and blustery, got worse. After…
The NFL’s COVID-19 protocol will keep Packers QB Aaron Rodgers in quarantine at least until the day before the Seahawks game Nov. 14. / Wiki Commons Who knew there would be a sports figure that could make anti-vaxxer Nick Rolovich look almost good? At least the former Washington State football coach didn’t lie about his intention to resist the vaccIne mandate required of nearly all state employees. He was up front in July, never wavered despite the self-inflicted damage done to him, his assistants and the school’s short-term reputation, and was fired. Inevitably, he sued the school. But there was…
RB Travis Homer found the going hard Sunday against former Bellevue High School standout Myles Jack and the Jacksonville defense. Homer had nine rushing yards in four carries. / Drew Sellers, Sportspress Northwest Amid the gales of local sports relief exhaled Sunday over the Seahawks’ ability to smack a 1-5 team into 1-6, there was an area of calm that signified apprehension. The Seahawks still can’t run the ball. Even the presumptive return to play of QB Russell Wilson, which is expected to lift every seaworthy craft in the Northwest, won’t much help the problem. Against a bad Jacksonville defense,…
Things became clear for Geno Smith Sunday at the Loo against Jacksonville. / Drew Sellers, Sportspress Northwest After watching QB Geno Smith complete his first 14 passes, run for a touchdown and throw for two more to create a 24-0 lead, two thoughts are realistic from Sunday: The Jacksonville Jaguars under rookie NFL coach Urban Meyer are a tire fire, and it’s hard to re-learn to ride a wild horse if it’s been awhile. Then there’s a third thought: The first two thoughts are not mutually exclusive. In his third start in place of injured Russell Wilson, Smith looked the…
Jackson Sirmon celebrates a recovered fumble with Zion Tupuola-Fetui (58) and Voi Tunuufi (90) Saturday at Stanford Stadium. / Washington Athletics Beginning what would be Washington’s decisive possession of the game, QB Dylan Morris had thrown 18 passes and completed 11 for 73 yards. The chance that he would have a meaningful throw seemed as likely as offensive coordinator John Donovan coming up with a daring, successful play. Lo and behold, the Huskies’ braintrust was waiting to play the Stanford Cardinal fellas for suckers. For all the cranial credit given coach David Shaw and his players, they were taken Saturday…
Coach Pete Carroll’s aversion to the risk of turnovers is compromising the Seahawks. / Drew Sellers, Sportspress Northwest In the rapacious world of the NFL, where playing and coaching careers start to shred at the first three-game losing streak, the Seahawks have a three-game losing streak. Sure enough, we media jackals are starting to tear at Pete Carroll’s khaki cuffs. Should the Seahawks lose Sunday to the 1-5 Jacksonville Jaguars to fall to 2-6, well, flesh is next. You can bet that the unseemly sight will draw no eye moisture from Darrell Bevell and Brian Schottenheimer. The two previous Seahawks…
Saints RB Alvin Kamara ran away from Seahawks defenders with 128 yards on 10 receptions Monday night. / Drew Sellers, Sportspress Northwest It’s been obvious for years. But there’s nothing like being knocked out of seasonal contention on national TV before mid-season to see a football truth in all its nakedness. “I’ve been here a long time,” Pete Carroll said. “If we didn’t have Russell, (Wilson), I probably wouldn’t have been here a long time.” Dependency on Wilson was no secret, but remained theoretical until the past three games when for the first time in his career, injury kept him…