Michael-Shawn Dugar is an American sports journalist whose books concentrate on the Seattle Seahawks. A 2014 graduate of Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication, he developed his reporting through the student newspaper, The Daily Evergreen. An undergraduate profile of basketball coach Ken Bone was published by The Seattle Times, providing an early example of the extended reporting that would become part of his professional work.
Dugar covered the Seahawks for Seattlepi.com and then The Athletic, where he spent nine years on the beat before moving into national NFL stories. He also cohosts the Seahawks Man 2 Man podcast. His books combine historical reflection with reporting about particular periods: The Franchise: Seattle Seahawks examines the Legion of Boom era, while 12 as One follows Mike Macdonald and the team that won Super Bowl LX.
Michael-Shawn Dugar Books
| Book | Year | Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| The Franchise | 2025 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| 12 as One | 2026 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
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Dugar’s route into journalism followed an initial interest in sports management. At Washington State, he found that writing and discussing sports suited him better than the practical work associated with that course or play-by-play broadcasting. Repeated assignments at the student newspaper gave him experience interviewing, editing, and meeting publication demands. He has credited journalism professor Ben Shors as an important influence and described that regular work as preparation for the responsibilities of professional reporting.
His university training also included media law and ethics, subjects he later found relevant while covering the team during the pandemic. In a Murrow College interview, he emphasized both sustained work and making that work visible to people who could help a reporting career develop.
Football Books
The Franchise: Seattle Seahawks: A Curated History of the Legion of Boom Era: Dugar revisits the Seahawks’ Legion of Boom era through a collection of essays about the people and decisions behind it. Familiar achievements accompany less frequently discussed episodes involving roster construction, competing personalities, and the identity of the team. The book considers how that period became part of Seattle’s sporting memory, connecting the franchise’s public mythology with the work and relationships that produced it. Published in 2025.
The collection treats the period as more than a sequence of winning scores. Dugar examines the negotiations and decisions behind the roster, the stories that became central to its reputation, and the wider community that formed around the team. His essays connect earlier events with their subsequent meaning for the franchise, giving readers both the immediate circumstances and the longer view developed through years of Seahawks coverage.
12 as One: Mike Macdonald, the Seattle Seahawks and the Making of a Super Bowl Champion: Dugar follows the Seahawks through the season that ended with victory in Super Bowl LX. After major personnel changes, Mike Macdonald’s team developed into a contender behind quarterback Sam Darnold and a defense known as the Dark Side. Reporting on players, coaches, and the front office examines how a reshaped roster exceeded expectations and defeated New England to secure the franchise’s second championship. Published in 2026.
The account begins with a team that had traded its starting quarterback and leading receiver, creating doubts about its chances in a division containing the Rams and 49ers. Dugar follows the contributions of players including Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Devon Witherspoon, and Ernest Jones IV alongside Darnold. Macdonald’s leadership and the front office’s decisions accompany the games, while a foreword by Julian Love adds a player’s perspective to the championship narrative.