Field Gulls: Meet the staff!

Don’t know who’s on the Field Gulls team? Now you do!

With the NFL Draft just one day away, I figured today would be a good time to introduce and reintroduce our awesome Field Gulls staff that keeps this site flowing with all different types of content on a daily basis. Some have been here for a very long time, while others have been part of the team for no more than a year, and a few came on staff directly from the fanposts section!

But first, please allow me to introduce myself. I’m Mookie Alexander and I’m the managing editor. This is my seventh season on staff, fourth season as the boss, the head man, the top dog, the big cheese, the head honcho, and second season in a full-time role. Once upon a time I wrote about the UFC and boxing for Bloody Elbow (eventually in addition to Field Gulls duties), but this has my sole attention now. I’ve been a Seahawks fan for close to 20 years, which is some feat since vicious rumors have me forever at 12 or 13 years old.

The Staff

John P. Gilbert, Staff Writer and Deputy Editor: JPG stumbled across Field Gulls while stuck at home due to public transportation being shut down in the wake of Hurricane Sandy battering New York City, and lurked for years before finally being worked up enough about something to endure the since-removed 48-hour waiting period to weigh in. After prolific commenting and several fanposts, Gilbert joined the site as a contributor in 2016, and saw editorial duties added to his role under Kenneth Arthur in 2018.

Tyler Alsin: Tyler’s first piece with Field Gulls was part of the Fanpost Contest in 2019, which he wrote to celebrate Doug Baldwin’s career as one of the greatest undrafted players of all time. He’s been writing for the site ever since, and is even known to defend Pete Carroll on occasion, which is the result of a long personal journey as a life-long Oregon Ducks fan and former hater of all things USC.

John Fraley: Danny Kelly asked him to join the staff as a regular contributor during the 2013 season, so that’s ten years of bad puns. In that decade he’s done everything from writing to proofreading to moderating to emergency-panic-posting the Coffee and Cigarettes links at 6:45 a.m. while making breakfast for his kids. Football-wise, he likes to blend advanced analytics with traditional stats and balance tape study with the eye test. Season ticket holder since 2005, also a pretty decent year for the ‘Hawks.

Frank T. Raines: Frank’s pseudonym gives him carte blanche to use FTR in his articles. If you knew nothing else about Frank, that should be enough. End blurb. (Kidding!) Frank has been an overly-optimistic diehard 12 since moving to Washington when he was seven years old, and considers Shaun Alexander “the bestest-ever” because (a) Shaun is the only Seahawk who’s ever won the NFL MVP award, and (b) FTR “might” share a last name with Shaun (when he’s not using a pseudonym). On February 4th, 2021, the infamous ‘If I were John and Pete (Part One)’ became FTR’s introduction to the Field Gullers (is that a word? that should be a word!), and 288 articles later, here we are. P.S. Frank really, REALLY hates writing in paragraph form so this intro nearly killed him. P.P.S. F__k the Rams!

Ted Zahn: Ted is the newbie in the Field Gulls crew as he just started at the beginning of April. He’s always repping the Seahawks in his home state of Wisconsin – the heart of Packers country – much to the chagrin of all the Cheeseheads. Ted has been a fan of the Seahawks since his favorite player (Derrick Mayes) was traded to the team shortly after Mike Holmgren took the helm. Why Derrick Mayes? Who knows, but he became a 12 for life!

Diane Taylor: After more than three decades of Seahawks fanship, Diane joined the Field Gulls team as a contributing writer in 2021. Shortly thereafter, she broke the news on Bruce Irvin’s “retirement,” only to get corrected publicly (on Facebook) by his wife… who let us know that his cryptic “I think It’s time” tweet was actually in reference to putting the kids to bed.

Devin Csigi: Devin joined the Field Gulls staff at this time in 2022 focusing largely on the writing scouting reports and previewing the NFL Draft. During the season he does game previews, breaks down play calling as well as both Seahawks and other teams’ schemes. Rumor has it Devin is still waiting for Matt Flynn to have his breakout season with the Seahawks.

Terrance Robinson aka @thadisrad: A lifelong ‘Hawks fan (mainly because his mother would take him to games at the Kingdome while in the womb), thadisrad exhibits a passion to be involved and a penance for having a good time while doing so. Curating and producing the Pre-Snap Reads for y’all on a (near) daily basis for the last 2+ years is his contribution. Lovingly handled, thadisrad has his eyes on writing for Field Gulls, if only he could hire a personal edit’or perhaps… thad is a proud scorpio, enjoys the liberal use of commas, fantasizing Bijan Robinson as our RB2, likes to share music, and thinks Ichiro is the 2nd best baseball player of all time. GO ‘HAWKS.

Also featuring…

Jacson Bevens: A Field Gulls contributor since 2011, you know him from the in-season Cigar Thoughts post-game write-ups since 2013, the year-round Cigar Thoughts Podcast, and his occasional radio hosting duties on Sports Radio KJR. I don’t think smoking cigars is allowed in the KJR building, but that doesn’t forbid you from having cigar thoughts while on the premises.

Samuel Gold: During the season and sometimes after the NFL Draft, we get elite analysis in video format through Sam’s Film Room, starting way back in 2016. I guess you could say his analysis skills are pure Gold.

Alaric10000: He moderates the comments. The previous 9,999 Alarics did not work out, but this Alaric has held this job down for years. His banhammer is powerful but he does not treat the comments section like his personal Whack-a-Mole.