The Duck Report: Becoming cool

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When I got the heads-up earlier this week that Marcus Mariota was cool with my dropping by his throwing session, I wasn’t worried about whether he remembered me.

Zero chance of it, I thought. I covered him for one season, his last in Eugene, and since then he’s dealt with, quite literally, hundreds of beat reporters as he’s made his way from Oregon to Tennessee to Philadelphia to Las Vegas and Washington.

What I was worried about, however, was the dap.

See, Marcus Mariota is cool. So are most of the athletes and coaches I cover. I am not, which often reveals itself upon the very first greeting.

Take this car crash with former Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein, for example.

I was expecting a handshake, got a dap and then panicked midway through. Thank God Bo Nix was looking the other way as I blacked out for whatever the heck that was.

I’m a handshake guy — not because I’m proper, but because I’m simple. But knowing I had a one-on-one with the coolest player I ever covered, I couldn’t help but count down the minutes until failure as I took my seat to watch Mariota throw.

“Say a prayer for me for the forthcoming dap,” I texted my former beat partner Andrew Greif, an expert on the subject.

As Mariota’s workout began to wind down, the anxiety kicked in.

What would I say if I screwed up the sequence? What if I went for the bro hug pull-in and he pushed back? What would my first question be to salvage the inevitable train wreck?

Well, I figured, it had been 12 years since I last interviewed Mariota. At least I’d likely get another 12 to recover.

Then the workout ended. He walked over. We made eye contact, nodded and I rose from my seat to greet him on the sideline.

Then he stuck out his hand.

The thumb was on top.

It was a handshake. Firm and quick. Before I could fully comprehend what had just happened, he launched into a series of questions for me.

How are you? How is your family? Any kids on the way yet? How has Oregon been?

It was the coolest possible thing he could have done, and something I joked about afterward with his throwing coach, Nate Costa.

“You know why Marcus is such a pro?” I asked Costa. “There’s zero chance he remembers me, but he still made me feel like he did.”

Costa laughed.

“He remembered,” he said. “He was like, ‘Wasn’t he one of the local beat guys?’”

One of the local beat guys.

It’s quite possibly the coolest way I’ve ever been described by a Heisman Trophy winner.

That Marcus Mariota. What a guy.

Why does Mariota keep coming back?

Fortunately, I’m a better storyteller than a hand-shaker. And after our greeting, Mariota and I focused in on what makes Eugene so special to him.

He has a home in Hawaii. He plays professionally in Washington D.C., but every July he returns to the place that holds him higher than any other.

And it’s not for the adulation, Mariota told me. He comes back because of the people.

“It’s still surreal. I really just play a game,” he said. “I play a children’s game for a living, and I got so much help from so many different people. I never wanted to be the center of attention, and I want other people to be recognized for their hard work as well.”

Read the full check-in with the Oregon legend here.

Back on the diamond

Paige Sinicki has had tougher Tuesdays.

Last week’s was pretty lax — a day of light movement and body recovery to give her and her Portland Cascade professional softball teammates some rest before an Athletes Unlimited Softball League game on Wednesday against Utah.

It’s Sinicki’s first full season as a pro, and after her time at University of Oregon, she’s still getting into the rhythm of the summer schedule.

“I just think everything we do is very intentional,” Sinicki said. “So it’s just about understanding what things you need individually that help you perform best, but then also understanding and knowing what everyone else needs.”

Sinicki, 23, will be the first to admit that her needs in July 2026 are different than they were eight months ago.

Then, Sinicki was beginning a battle with breast cancer, a diagnosis she first revealed publicly in June.

Now, she’s a survivor, who battled the disease for eight months to make a triumphant return to the field.

THe Traffic Report

No video for the Traffic Report this week, but for the audiophiles out there, Justin Myers and I take to the mics this week to officially say goodbye to the World Cup before making the transition back to our wheelhouse: college football.

Listen here.