What excited me most about taking six months off from my job in the sports department at The Seattle Times was the chance to become a sports fan again. Because my job is to edit stories in a neutral fashion, I have watched local teams with clinical detachment for many years.
I wanted to recapture the passion I had for my teams before I got into this business 30 years ago. I wanted to feel the emotion that seemingly everyone else has in Seattle when they watch the Seahawks play. So I bought season tickets for Washington football, the team I loved so much as a kid, and the school I graduated from three decades ago.