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# I Can't Afford to Cover the Seahawks Right Now, So It's Time to Step Away
- URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/i-cant-afford-to-cover-the-seahawks-right-now-so-its-time-to-step-away/
- Published: 2026-11-07T03:59:14.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-07T04:22:25.000Z
- Description: Covering the Seahawks for the past nine-plus years has truly been a dream, and I plan to fight for that dream. But first, I have to get myself back on track to take on that fight.
- Author: Corbin K. Smith

You ever feel like you're dead, but nobody told you?

One of my favorite video game characters - Augustus Cole from the Gears of War universe - dropped that question while pondering the destruction around him and how his entire world had been turned upside down by decades of war. And while it may come from a fictional character, this existential line carried a ton of weight as so many other memorable quotes that made the original Gears trilogy so spectacular.

It has been years since I played Gears 3, the game where the "Cole Train" dropped that question thinking about his past self. But for some reason, it popped in my head this week as I spiraled down to a level I never thought I would reach.

I'm going to be straight forward as I can, and then explain why I have reached this verdict: At this time, it is not in the best interest of my mental health to remain a full-time Seattle Seahawks reporter, at least in regards to the lofty standards that I expect and demand from myself on the beat.

Earlier this week, I started a second job at the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Arlington, as I had to either get a second job or risk losing my home. For nearly 10 years, such circumstances would have been unthinkable, as my wife and I have always been able to pay our bills with me being on freelance reporter. I truly made this a dream career for myself and she allowed me to be able to achieve that goal by making incredible sacrifices our first few years together while I made pennies trying to make it as an NFL reporter.

Eventually, I hit the jackpot landing with Sports Illustrated, or at least a website that carries that name. I was never an actual employee of SI, as is the case for all of the writers who cover their team sites. I was a contractor by title, but damnit, I treated my job like I was a full-time beat reporter. I wrote one or two articles minimum every day for eight years with the company, building what I believe was the best Seahawks coverage in the game.

Away from that, with the help of Rob Rang and Nick Lee, we also built the Locked On Seahawks podcast into one of the best, if not the best, podcasts out there. We poured our souls into that daily podcast, doing at least five shows a week year round for seven years. No vacations - at least for me - as I kept grinding away and grinding away.

With both of those ventures, I am grateful to have found great success in an industry that has become increasingly harder to survive in. My wife and I were able to purchase a beautiful home north of Seattle coming out of the pandemic. I became a full-time beat reporter with credentials, something I had dreamed about for years. Life couldn't have been better.

Then, in December 2022, my wife and I moved to Colorado for a bevy of reasons, all of which were fully justified. Family comes first, even if the circumstances were far from ideal. I wasn't going to let my dream die, because that's not how I operate. I don't have a give up bone in my damn body. I was going to continue to pour my everything into being the best, most informative reporter I could be, even if I had to fly to every game.

For three years, I did just that. All on my own dime. SI and Locked On didn't pay for travel. I used the money I earned through those ventures to pay my own way to games. For two seasons, those investments paid off, as I made significantly more money when I was covering games in person, justifying the prices for plane tickets, hotels, and sometimes rental cars. I made enough money to be able to do that.

But in my last year living north of Denver, everything started to unravel at the seams. Out of the blue, SI - or I guess we shall call them FanNation or whatever they go by now - kicked me to the curb. More than five years of service and to this day, I still couldn't tell you what I did to deserve being jettisoned. But I abruptly was no longer the lead publisher there, and there wasn't anywhere else to turn.

So, I did what many others in the field have done. I started my own website and Emerald City Spectrum was born. Starting from scratch, the money wasn't great, but we assembled a quality staff with great, hard-working people who had the same goals as me: covering their assigned team(s) with professionalism, expertise, and most importantly, passion.

For a while, with Locked On Seahawks still humming, I was able to keep my head above water. I drove out for training camp and stayed for several weeks in Seattle, which proved to be the first of several poor financial decisions on my part. In previous years, I would have made my money back and then some. But in August 2025, the books were all red. The returns simply weren't there.

That trend continued throughout the 2025 season. But with the Seahawks having a Super Bowl contender, I kept racking up credit card debt so that I could cover all of the games, including flying to Seattle for home games. I wanted to be viewed as what I believe I am: a damn good beat reporter who works his tail off to bring well-rounded insight and analysis. Sitting in my house 2,000 miles away wasn't going to help me do that.

Some of those games, I would turn a profit. But more times than not, my post-game analysis didn't attract new subscribers. At least not enough to warrant the rising costs of travel. I couldn't switch to an ads-based model either, as there wasn't near enough page views to come close to making even the modest amount of money we were receiving off subscriptions.

Covering the Super Bowl ultimately was the straw that broke the camel's back. I have no regrets, as I may never get another chance to cover the big game as I did that week in San Francisco. But the costs for travel were outlandish, even with me picking the cheapest options I could. And I struggled to recover from that.

I did nine podcasts that week leading up to the big game. Nine. But I saw my listenership steadily **decline** for months after the Seahawks won in Santa Clara and the bottom line sunk. April through June were significantly worse than they were the year prior. My confidence sunk further into the abyss.

*What the hell is wrong with me? Am I not good at this anymore? Or was I never good and just got lucky when many others didn't?*

I have tried to make adjustments, both as a reporter and a podcaster, to a rapidly changing landscape. Adaptability has long been a strength of mine, and I think that contributed to being able to succeed for as long as I have. I've leaned a bit more into video content. I have tried to bring back the lengthy film studies that originally paved my way to becoming a reporter.

Hell, I've made larger chunks of my articles available to non-subscribers, as many of my social media followers hinted that if they could see more of the content, they would be more likely to subscribe. But there's never been any data that suggests there's any truth to that. In fact, it's been the opposite. Seeing more gives less reason to subscribe apparently.

I also left Locked On, which was an incredibly difficult decision that I agonized over for weeks, and at least on that front, there's reason for optimism. The Seahawks Triple Option has grown rapidly since we launched in September and that seems to be trending in a positive direction.

But at this point, I'm trying to climb out of the water with debt up to my eye balls, paying the price for trying to be a legitimate NFL reporter from multiple states for three years and getting to experience covering a Super Bowl run, something many beat reporters never get to do.

Do I regret that? Hell no. I would do it again 100 out of 100 times. Any reporter who loves what they do would give you the same answer.

I kept thinking that, eventually, Emerald City Spectrum would break through. All of us would achieve the success that we deserve for being professionals and providing outstanding insight on the teams we cover. On a personal level, I'd start to get even financially again.

Unfortunately, I have reached the verdict that - at least for now - that's not going to happen. I had to let several great writers go last month because it has been a struggle to pay them with minimal interest in the teams they were working so diligently to cover. That's the nature of the beast in any business. If something isn't making money, you can't keep throwing money at it.

Again, I'm not one to give up, so that's not what is happening right now. Emerald City Spectrum will remain up and running and we will do the best we can with limited resources. One way or another, there will be content still coming up daily.

But I'm downright exhausted. Mentally, I feel broken, and the struggles that I have had to endure for the last several years, whether the constant travel when living in Colorado or losing my job that I loved at SI or seeing everything bottom out since the Super Bowl last February, have taken a massive toll on me.

Much of that has revolved around rapidly declining feelings of self worth. Constantly being asked to jump on radio or TV shows, but not getting offered a cent for the insight and expertise I provide. But hey, I'll get that promotion for my site and podcast, right?

When I was 27 and just getting started, that was more than enough. But now? I don't blame any of the people who are hamstrung and can't make those opportunities financially viable, as it isn't their fault. But I am not a punk kid trying to make a name for myself anymore. I'm only a few years from being 40 and I shouldn't be constantly fighting the feeling that my dream is dying. The experiences of constantly being told that your talent is valued, just not enough to pay you anything, sucks the soul out of the body.

Or how about social media, which used to at least have some value sharing your links and podcasts. Now a days, there's more nasty responses from people - real or not, who the hell knows? - than link clicks, and those clicks don't really mean anything if people just see them and pass on by because they don't appreciate your work enough to even consider paying for it so that you can support your family.

Right now, I can't give what I need to give to be the reporter that I want to be. And hell, I can't even afford to be a reporter right now, figuratively and literally. Over the past few weeks, I've missed several practices because I had to choose between paying for gas to drive to the facility or paying for utilities. That's the reality of the world that I - and many other Americans, quite frankly - are living with.

Since I am working another job now four days a week so that I can keep the roof over my wife and I's heads, I can't even attend the practices that allowed me to be able to write so many of the fun stories I've produced over the years moving forward. That has been quite the sting.

Everything seems to be caving in around me. My mind has went places that I wish it wouldn't have, and I'm getting help to address that. Because, in the end, my family and friends don't deserve to have to deal with that. They deserve me being at my best and not in a perpetual state of delusion that things are going to be fine when they have been anything but fine doing what I'm doing.

Over the past few days, with plenty of time to weigh my thoughts boxing up stuff that will be shipped to other people to bring them joy, I've done a lot of soul searching. I have a long way to go to get back to where I need to be mentally, but I think I have been able to clear my head enough to think rationally about everything and understand that my plight isn't my fault. And it certainly isn't the fault of my loved ones who support me.

The economy isn't good. I understand why $6 subscriptions may not be in the interest of many people right now for sports reporting. It's entertainment, and that should be the first thing that goes when wallets tighten up.

There are other factors out of my control that have made life much harder on me to be successful at what I do, including the ever-evolving arrival of AI that has put anyone who writes on notice and other things that I will choose not to disclose.

But while I have much work left to do in coming weeks and months to rebuild myself and get back on track, the past few days have allowed me to remember one thing: I'm not in this spot because I'm not good enough at my job. Or that I've lost my touch.

Many of you may know me for my bright suits worn on game day. That's always been a proper representation of my personality. I'm a glowing person who loves what I do and I try my best to provide quality information for die hard and casual 12s alike with the utmost excitement and passion. But underneath those suits, I'm also fiercely competitive. I hate to lose. I take my job seriously, sometimes to a fault, evidenced by the way I've grinded for more than a decade building myself to where I am at now.

I want that edge back. With the feeling that I can still win, that I can still be successful covering the Seahawks beat, and most importantly, that I can still be happy while supporting my family doing so. I think a big part of that is going to boil down to me doing what I need to do to make myself whole again, looking beyond football.

I've said before and I'll say it again: I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going to just let this dream that I've worked so damn hard for wilt up and die without a fight. I'll still be doing my daily podcast, as I don't think going completely Cold Turkey would be an effective strategy for me either, so I'm not completely going to disappear.

But on the reporting side of things, I have to hit the reset button indefinitely. For the time being, Emerald City Spectrum will be in great hands with the rest of our staff covering the Seahawks, Huskies, Kraken, and other teams. I know they will do a great job until I am healthy enough to return to the fight. I have the utmost faith in them leading us where we need to go.

There will be a time where I can come back to this space, re-join them, and give everything I have once again. I hope that will be sooner rather than later.

That time isn't right now, however. I have to get myself right before I can actually do that. I want to feel good about myself again, feel like there's direction to my life where I'm not just spinning in circles with my feet caught in quicksand. It is going to require a lot of challenging introspection to get there and I can't speak for how long it will take.

Thank you for reading and hope to see you again soon,

Corbin