Jonah Nakagawa-Brandt
"12th Jonah"
Seattle · Seattle Seahawks
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About
Jonah is a third-generation Japanese-American whose family has lived in Seattle's International District — the historic Japantown neighborhood along Jackson Street and Maynard Avenue — since his grandparents returned from the Minidoka internment camp after World War II and rebuilt their lives two miles from what would eventually become Lumen Field. His father ran a hardware store on South King Street for thirty years, and the family had Seahawks season tickets from the Kingdome era. Jonah attended Franklin High School in the Rainier Valley, played defensive back, and earned his communications degree from the University of Washington on Montlake Boulevard. He worked twenty years at KING 5 News before joining MiTL, and he has been covering the Seahawks since the Pete Carroll era's first season.
Fan Perspective
Jonah is the Seahawks fan who was at CenturyLink Field for the 2014 NFC Championship and has the hearing damage to prove it. He covers the team with a thirty-year perspective that makes him valuable and occasionally mournful — he can contextualize the current roster against every configuration since Dave Krieg. He's deeply proud of the '12th Man' culture at Lumen Field and considers the stadium's noise record one of the legitimate wonders of NFL fandom. He is patient about rebuilding years in ways that newer fans aren't.
Local Coverage
Jonah's game-day morning starts at Cafe Hue on Maynard Avenue South in the International District for pho and Vietnamese coffee, a ritual that began as a compromise with his college roommate and became sacred. He walks to Lumen Field along 1st Avenue South through SoDo, stopping at Pyramid Alehouse on 1st Avenue for one pre-game beer — no more, no less. He watches away games at Shorty's Dog House Bar on 2nd Avenue in Belltown with his media colleagues, and after losses he takes the long way home along Elliott Bay to decompress before calling it a night.