📰 NEWS FLASH: Seattle’s Super Bowl QB is the same one the league gave up on ⚡.DH

The moment Sam Darnold lifted the NFC Championship trophy in Seattle, the story stopped being about surprise.

It became about survival.

Darnold has led the Seahawks to Super Bowl LX — the brightest moment of his professional career — but nothing about this journey has been straightforward. In fact, it’s been defined by exits, doubts, and near-erasure.

When the New York Jets selected Darnold No. 3 overall in 2018, he was supposed to be the answer. The franchise quarterback. The reset. Instead, three seasons later, he was replaced. Not refined. Not rebuilt. Replaced.

Carolina offered a second chance. It didn’t last. Injuries piled up. Confidence wavered. The numbers flattened. Eight wins. Sixteen touchdowns. Sixteen interceptions. The league’s verdict felt unanimous.

Bust.

By 2023, Darnold wasn’t chasing redemption — he was trying to stay relevant. He signed a one-year deal with San Francisco as a backup. No guarantees. No spotlight. Just learning. Watching. Absorbing.

That season changed everything.

Under Kyle Shanahan, Darnold recalibrated. He stopped pressing. He stopped trying to be who the league expected him to be. And when Minnesota signed him in 2024 as a bridge quarterback, fate intervened again.

J.J. McCarthy went down before the season began. Suddenly, the job was Darnold’s — not temporarily, but completely.

He didn’t blink.

Darnold delivered career highs across the board, earned his first Pro Bowl nod, and led the Vikings to a 14–3 record. But football is unforgiving. A disastrous Week 18 performance followed by a Wild Card collapse against the Rams erased goodwill quickly. Minnesota moved on.

Again.

That could’ve been the end.

Instead, Seattle called.

The Seahawks signed Darnold to a three-year deal and handed him a roster built for belief. He responded with the most complete season of his career: 14–3, the No. 1 seed, and now a Super Bowl berth.

At 28, Darnold is no longer chasing validation. He’s defining it.

He’s also making history. Darnold will become the first USC quarterback to start a Super Bowl — a poetic milestone given how unlikely his college journey was.

Before the NFL doubts, there were college ones.

Darnold missed the final seven games of his junior year in high school with a broken foot. Scholarships dried up. USC wasn’t supposed to happen. Until one workout changed everything.

He earned a late offer. Arrived on campus behind a five-star recruit. Redshirted. Waited. Then waited again behind another five-star.

When he finally got his shot, USC never looked back.

Darnold took over midseason, led the Trojans to nine straight wins, stunned Washington in Seattle, and authored one of the most iconic comebacks in Rose Bowl history — scoring 10 points in the final 80 seconds to beat Penn State.

Pressure never scared him. Silence never did either.

That theme carried forward.

His career hasn’t been linear. It’s been punctuated by exits and re-entries, by moments where belief had to exist without evidence.

Now, with one game left, Sam Darnold stands where few thought he ever would — not because he escaped adversity, but because he endured it long enough to outgrow it.

Hollywood loves a comeback story.

The NFL rarely gives you time to finish one.

Sam Darnold did anyway.