Seattle Seahawks

A Seattle Seahawks running back is also an aspiring interior designer

Published Nov. 15, 2016 2:27 p.m. ET

Brett Smiley

While adjusting a new job, a complex playbook and a new city, Seattle Seahawks rookie running back Zac Brooks helped an aesthetics-challenged reporter turn his drab one-bedroom apartment into something much better with a nature theme.

A seventh-round pick out of Clemson, Brooks says his dream job (besides the NFL) is interior design. One day the 23-year-old hopes to launch his own firm, but for now he's cut his teeth with an apartment makeover for Seattle Times scribe Matt Calkins, who described his decorating abilities as poor and wanted the place to look like an adult lives there.

So he reached out to Brooks, who took a much greater interest than Calkins anticipated. Brooks came out to look at the apartment in person and then exchanged renderings and ideas over the course of two months for how they could transform the living space.

“This is me. I’m watching HGTV all the time,” Brooks said. “I can’t wait till I can get to the point where I can take out walls and change the floors and do all that. That’s when it’s really going to heat up.”

It looks like Seattle has done a nice job filling the void of interesting characters that Marshawn Lynch's retirement left at the running back position.