A lot happened in the world of sports while Softy was gone. One of the big stories locally was Colin Cowherd's claim that Russell Wilson could end up playing football in New York, but that's not going to happen. Softy believes that a lot of his "good guy" image is contrived to some extent, and it stems from his insecurities. Those same insecurities will prevent him from playing in a market that'll be much harder on him, in an unfamiliar environment. The Dawgs keep rolling, and Matisse Thybulle continues to be the standout on defense. We might just be witnessing his star rising high enough to become a first round draft pick this Spring. The XFL is coming to Seattle with a team led by Jim Zorn, but is there room for it here? In Seattle the team won't compete with much of anything locally except maybe Husky basketball (and eventually NHL hockey). There will probably only be one secondary league in a few years though. One of the two (XFL and AAF) will fold, or they'll merge. Are people really criticizing Kaep for taking the money? It's just money that the would have made if he had been playing. If he knew the impact this would have when it started, would he have done it? Well, maybe now that he's made millions form a settlement he still would. We know the M's aren't likely to win the World Series this year, and that's fine. The 2013 Astros lost 110 games, but they built themselves for the future. No one thinks the Mariners will be that bad this year, but they're in a similar overall situation. This year will be a success if at the end we can point to a handful of guys and say "they'll be the ones to take us deep into the playoffs in a year or two." The goal of the Mariners this year is to show us the future of the team.