Morning Hot Reads: Trapped In A Box

ORLANDO SENTINEL on the upcoming Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao mega-fight: "Boxing is peeking its head out of a dark hole like Punxsutawney Phil, only to scurry back underground, the forecast calling for more years of apathy."

GRANTLAND.com covers the NFL Combine under the header, "America's Second-Greatest Reality Show." The "exploding popularity of the combine represents one of the great triumphs of the modern NFL, a business that is marketed every bit as ingeniously as it is incompetently governed."

The ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH on MLB Cardinals Owner Bill DeWitt Jr.: "The secret to the Cardinals' sustained success starts at the top. And yes, it really is a secret, because no one really thinks of the owner as the creative mind that powers his team’s winning baseball operation."

Also:

• Shoe company Vans: from humble beginnings to $2B in revenue.
• U.S. professional soccer sees explosive growth in lower tiers.
• An inside look at the NHL's high-tech video replay center.
• Pawtuckett, R.I., braces for historic McCoy Stadium's likely demise.
• MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred puts length of season on table.
• Vanderbilt adopts Catapult Sports GPS system for football program.
• Lessons WWE has learned one year after launch of WWE Network.