As always, you can hear the message you want to hear. Even if it’s at the expense of the one you should be absorbing, at full volume, now more than ever.

SEATTLE — No one on the Zoom call was going to use the word. L.J. Collier is too nice of a guy, too new to the NFL, and it would have just felt unnecessary.

I once heard someone say that a man who has declared bankruptcy can be inherently trusted with money. It seems counterintuitive, but the argument goes that, at that point, he no longer has a safety net and will hence be reliable.

Bruce Irvin is used to shouldering lofty expectations.

Imagine working 80-hour weeks for years on end with the sole goal of becoming an NFL coach.

Walter Jones picked the wrong time to have his kitchen and bathroom renovated. Or at least it seemed that way.

Watching televised replays of sporting events has proved to be one way to fill the void of live-action games that have been plunged into a deep freeze for a good two months because of the coronavirus.

I’m like any other sports fanatic from Fargo to Fort Worth, from Kennewick to Key West.

Try searching for pundits who picked the Seahawks to win 11 games last year.

SEATTLE — Our expectations for the return of live sports have been in a state of gradual downward adjustment. They’ve gone from grandiose hopes of a full return after a short break, to the current cabin-fever mode of, “We’ll take anything!”

Digging through my Blue Mountain Sports Awards files and gleaning details that were needed for recent columns that appeared in this space turned out to be for me a pleasant trip down memory lane.

The panel of judges responsible for determining the winners of the Blue Mountain Sports Awards these past 43 years should be commended for their dedication and fairness.

Former DeSales High School football coach Mike Spiess’s involvement with the program touched four decades — from 1986-2018.

Broadcasting, newspaper writing, public address announcing and statistical gathering have been cornerstones of my life for the better part of four decades.

I remember attending a couple of meetings back in late 1976 — or perhaps it was early 1977 — when the first Blue Mountain Sports Awards was in its planning stages.

Walla Walla Community College’s women’s soccer program — now some two-and-a-half decades old — has proven to be quite formidable in the Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC), formally the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC).

Walla Walla Community College’s volleyball program had its moments of exceeding expectations under former head coach Tim Toon.

Jeff Reinland seemed to have it made as a high school basketball coach.

The 30-season history of Walla Walla Community College football, which unfolded from 1968 through 1997, had its share of successes.

Many mindsets seem to come to the forefront with the beginning of any sports season.

When the first Blue Mountain Sports Awards took place in the cafeteria at Walla Walla Community College in the spring of 1977, Max Seachris was honored as Coach of the Year.

The act of shuffling through my old baseball cards while researching for a column that appeared in last Sunday’s Union-Bulletin brought back a flood of memories.

Burned out from reading too many books, disheartened by the news on cable TV and still a few hours away from my afternoon jog, I decided it was time to look for another way to deal with this coronavirus insanity.

One could hypothesize that the postponement and cancellation of sporting events locally, regionally, nationally, and around the globe due to the coronavirus has been painful.

The coronavirus that prematurely ended Walla Walla Community College’s women’s basketball season earlier this month isn’t expected to negatively impact, at least in a big way, four-year colleges who are interested in recruiting Warrior sophomores.

Bobbi Hazeltine figures she’s at least one step ahead of the coronavirus when it comes to recruiting next year’s women’s basketball class at Walla Walla Community College.

The best time to catch whitefish on a fly rod is in July when you’re fishing for trout.

The morning of Sunday, Jan. 26 dawned in typical fashion for the University of Washington’s baseball team.

If a greater opportunity has awaited a first-year Pac-12 head coach, we are unaware.

I’ll bet you a buck to a dime that rarely a day goes by I don’t get a phone call from somebody either living here or visiting the area asking about the availability of a truly public pistol range.

Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright thinks the most spectacular play in franchise history never should have happened.

It was Sophocles, the Greek tragedian, who said, “I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating.”

One can’t help but wonder if Bryce Harper is experiencing buyer’s remorse this month as he watches his old team, the Washington Nationals, close in on a World Series championship.

The Seahawks could really have used Earl Thomas this week.

PEORIA, Ariz. — Julio Rodriguez has The Look.

CLEVELAND — They say never begin a story with a dictionary definition. 

GREENVILLE, S.C. — In a different time, it was an attractive little two-bedroom home, constructed in the early 1940s out of red brick and owned by one of the greatest players ever to grace the diamond, a towering yet tragic figure who lived the last half of his life and went to his grave as …

It was 24 years ago Tuesday that the Mariners played what remains the greatest game in their history, the one they’ve been fruitlessly clinging to and trying to replicate ever since.