I think it’s like a cult up there in Seattle. They won’t let you go unless they’re done with you.

On the very same day that ESPN’s Todd McShay wrote that he believed Jake Locker would go No. 1 in the NFL draft, the kid announces he’s going to stay at the University of Washington for his senior season.

Really? I mean, REALLY?

He’s going to pass on possible No. 1 money to come back and risk an entire career just to play for that college team? Sorry, that’s insane. And his coach is doing him a major disservice by not telling him to go.

Yeah, if you’re not a high pick, play out your collegiate eligibility. But if you’re a top five pick — or perhaps even the top pick — it’s a very poor fiscal decision to not enter the draft. And as much as his college coach wants him back, he has a responsibility in this case to tell the kid to jump.

We’re talking about millions and millions of dollars, enough money for his family and all the Lockers for generations to come.

Ridiculous.

UPDATE: As several commenters have already mentioned, I was remiss in not mentioning that the next collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and its players may include a rookie wage scale, which would make this decision look even more severely boneheaded.

Locker may be throwing away $30-$40 million by not entering this draft.

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Tags: College football, Jake Locker, NFL Draft, University of Washington Huskies

Some things in sports run in cycles. But there are other things I’d have thought would never come back.

Funny thing. If a National Football League coach suddenly announced, “I’m going to run some single wing this season,” they’d immediately not only fire him, they’d offer him up as a candidate for idiot of the year.

But if you just invent a new name for it, say, call it the “Wildcat,” you can not only get away with it, you will be hailed as an innovator and everyone will start copying you!

(Thanks, KVD, for reminding me!)

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, NFL, single wing, Wildcat offense

I turn around and wow — all of a sudden the Ducks are a top 25 team again, the Beavers can’t beat one of the worst teams in the Pac-10, the Vikings blow another game and the Seahawks are wearing home uniforms that look like cheap ripoffs of the old Portland Storm gear.

I’m going to show up at the Trail Blazer media day this afternoon and see what happens next. I mean, Jawan Howard and Ime Udoka might show up.

And I thought I picked a sleepy time of the year to take some time out of town.

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Ime Udoka, Jawan Howard, Oregon Ducks, Oregon State Beavers, Seattle Seahawks

My lifelong friend, Mike Clopton, and I stood on a street corner across the street from the left-field entrance to Safeco Field Thursday afternoon, getting ready to duck into a quiet little place called “Jimmy’s” where we’d watch Ian Furness do his talk show live on KJR.

The Mariners were playing a rare 3:40 game and I hesitated before ducking into the joint. On one side of me was Safeco Field, a glimmering baseball oasis on a perfect sunny afternoon. On the other side was a meeting hall and theater, attached to Qwest Field, where the Seahawks play — another most impressive structure.

The streets were alive with happy people. Families, business people ducking out on work, singles, senior citizens — people who seemed giddy about what their afternoon promised them. Even the scalpers had smiles on their faces.

What a town, man. Yes, Seattle lost its NBA team. Cry no tears — with the NFL and major-league baseball, it’s barely noticed.

When I was a kid, Seattle and Portland were heated rivals in just about every way. They had the Rainiers in the Pacific Coast League fighting our Beavers and the Totems in the Western Hockey League always losing to our Buckaroos. Those were the days.

But then the Kingdome went up and Seattle became a big-league city. While we were focusing on keeping it weird, they were concentrating on pennant races and dreaming of Super Bowls. They haven’t won a World Series or Super Bowl yet, but they are allowed to think about it every year. They paid the price of admission — in erecting beautiful public facilities that, yes, probably cost too much money.

But I hear no complaints as I stand on that corner. You never hear any around here. I see excited people headed to the ballpark to watch what turned into a honey of a game. As Mike and I alternated between great seats behind home plate, an inning in the press box and about four innings in the owner’s suite (Thanks to an all-time great guy, Randy Adamack), I couldn’t help but reflect.

Right there within a block of each other, twice as many sports facilities as the city of Portland has built since that coin toss when the little settlement on the Willamette became “Portland” rather than “Boston.”

It’s a shame we quit being Seattle’s rival. It’s a shame we didn’t dare to dream big. What fun we could have had in this town.

But I will say one thing for us. We’ve got Memorial Coliseum on the National Register of Historic Places. Those idiots up there in Seattle, who probably could have done the same thing with the Kingdome had they been smart enough, decided instead to implode it to make way for a gorgeous, state-of-the-art football stadium.

Fools. Don’t they know you’re supposed to keep old, disgusting, worn-out dumps like the Kingdome around and sink even more dough into them? I mean, that could have been an athletic club or a velodrome, right?

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Mike Clopton, Portland, Qwest Field, Randy Adamack, Safeco Field, Seattle

I guess you’re never too old to make a dirty play. (Sorry folks, the video has been removed — I could explain but it’s not worth the effort).

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Tags: Brett Favre, cheap shot, Dwight Jaynes, Eugene Wilson, illegal crackback block, NFL

He’s NOT going to be the starting quarterback for the New York Jets when the season opens. I think Clemens, and Duck fans, are pretty disappointed but I see it as a break. We had Clemens as a guest on a recent show on 95.5 The Game and even he admitted that the most popular player on a football team is often the backup quarterback.

I think in this case, Clemens is better off being the backup while the hotshot, highly paid rookie goes out there into what will be a very, very tough task. I think it was destined to be that way as soon as Sanchez was drafted. For Clemens, being the No. 1, with Mark Sanchez breathing down his neck, would have been a very tough, if not impossible duty. But the pressure’s all on the new kid now.

And perhaps Clemens can later be the savior, riding in to save the team when the rookie struggles.

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Kellen Clemens, Mark Sanchez, New York Jets

I’m going to say this just one time and shut up. I know it’s a minority opinion and the whole world is so pumped up about ol’ No. 4 signing on with the Minnesota Vikings.

Yeah, I know — what do the Vikings have to lose with this?

Well, to start, the $10 million they say it’s going to cost them to bring him on board. That’s a lot for an old man just out of surgery. And they will also lose the respect of some players, who figure if they have to put up with training camp, maybe he should, too. I mean, this whole thing was just a dodge so he didn’t have to go to camp, wasn’t it? Last, how good is he going to be, really?

I just want to be the one guy who reminds people how bad Favre was at the tail-end of last season. Man, he was dragging and he took the team down with him. Second, if you’re expecting to see vintage Favre, well, you may see it in flashes, but you’re not going to see it for extended periods.

And his big problem is, I’m not sure he can adjust to “old-man-Favre” any better than his legion of fans can. If he’d only recognize that there are throws he used to make that he can no longer accomplish, become a little more safety first, maybe he could pull this off. I’m not sure he can do that. I think he’s still going to be the same old riverboat gambler. And maybe without enough arm strength to make a lot of those gambles pay off.

Frankly, I’m just sort of sick of the guy — he’s turned into such a high school drama queen. The whole, “I will, I won’t” thing just numbed me. He’s just not ending this career on a very graceful note and it’s going to eventually color a whole lot of people’s opinions of him. Remember, he didn’t exactly leave a bunch of appreciative teammates in New York last season.

But, of course, there will always be fans — particularly fans in the media — who adore him no matter what. Like I said, I don’t expect a lot of people to be pleased with this post. The guy should run for president someday because it doesn’t seem to matter what he does, the people love him.

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Tags: Brett Favre, Dwight Jaynes, Minnesota Vikings, No. 4

Maybe nowhere. USA Today has a great team-by-team roundup today of the possibilities, with updates on anything each franchise has said about the chances of signing him. Some of them are interesting, especially New England — where the owner seems to have ruled him out but the coach hasn’t.

It looks to me like the guy’s possibilities are dwindling, but it only takes one team. I’d love to see him get a shot — just to find out if the actually can still play. He was a very entertaining player to watch, as you know.

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Mike Vick, NFL

You don’t have to go to the Boston Globe and read the whole long story, because Deadspin does a nice job of boiling the story down here. It seems a couple of security guards in the Red Sox clubhouse were apparently released from their jobs for steroid use.

Ironically, the two were associated closely with David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence, Red Sox fans. Makes for an interesting story but I have to tell you, if teams in all sports started looking at their security forces for steroid users, they’d certainly find some.

In fact, here’s the way I’d rank current professions and the possibility of those people using steroids:

1. Professional bodybuilding.

2. Professional wrestling.

3. Professional football.

4. Professional baseball.

5. Security guards. You know, either they feel the need to look imposing on the job or the people looking to fill those positions think they need to hire guys who look like armored cars. Check out the next concert you attend if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

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Tags: Boston Globe, Deadspin, Dwight Jaynes, security guards, steroids

I will never understand all the fuss about keeping him out of the National Football League.

I mean, it’s not as if the league doesn’t already have its share of people who have done all sorts of ugly things to people, rather than dogs. What’s the point here? Exactly how many pounds of flesh must we carve out of him for his crimes?

Yes, Vick’s dog-fighting (and dog-killing) was reprehensible. But really, does that mean we must punish him forever? Isn’t this the country that believes in second (or third and fourth) chances? Drug abusers, wife beaters and drunk drivers get better treatment.

My goodness, the guy may not ever be good enough to be a starting NFL quarterback again. Can’t we just let him go grab a few checks as a backup for a few more seasons?

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Tags: dog fighting, Dwight Jaynes, Mike Vick, NFL