Sam Darnold completes redemption with Super Bowl title

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Sam Darnold, Super Bowl-winning quarterback.

A few years ago, the phrase sounded absurd. Once considered a draft bust in the city where quarterbacks never seem to succeed, Darnold felt blue and green confetti rain down on his red hair on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium, where his Seattle Seahawks defeated the New England Patriots 29-13 to win Super Bowl LX.

Earlier in the week, Darnold expressed gratitude for his time with the New York Jets, who selected the gunslinger out of USC No. 3 overall in the 2018 draft. He believes those struggles, as well as stops in Carolina, San Francisco and Minnesota, to be part of what made this season possible.

Typically stoic, he showed rare emotion on Sunday as the long path toward stardom led to him holding the Lombardi Trophy.

“It’s special. I shared a great moment with my parents and my fiancée Katie after the game, and I think that’s what kind of got me a little bit,” said Darnold, who completed 19 of 38 passes for 202 yards, a touchdown and no turnovers. “Me and my dad don’t really cry very often, and I told my dad and my mom, I’m here because of their belief in me. They believed in me throughout my entire career, and I think that’s why I was able to believe in myself almost ad nauseam.”

While Jets fans labeled Darnold a franchise failure, he always felt he would find his way.

“Some people called me crazy throughout my career for believing in myself so much and having so much confidence, but it was because of my parents,” Darnold said. “Because of the way that they believed in me throughout my entire career, and it allowed me to go out there and play free and have a ton of confidence.”

With every success, the doubters openly waited for Darnold to come back to earth. He led the Minnesota Vikings to a 14-3 season in 2024, but the team lost a key regular-season finale game as well as a Wildcard playoff game.

When Darnold signed with Seattle prior to this season, most were unimpressed. Even as he led the NFL in downfield passing as the Seahawks stacked wins, the narrative of not being able to win a big game continued.

He’d turned into a pumpkin, they said.

The Seahawks went into the regular-season finale, but certainly he’d blow the No. 1 seed in San Francisco, they said.

Got lucky there, but certainly he can’t beat the Rams in the NFC title game, they said.

Okay, okay, but the Super Bowl? He was awful against the Patriots when he played for the Jets, so the crash is coming, they said.

“Sam doesn’t care about the obstacle,” Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said. “Like everyone’s made a narrative of this guy. They have tried to put a story and a label on who he is as a person, who he is as a quarterback. He does not care. He is the same guy every day since he showed up.”

Going into the playoffs, doubters waited for the turnovers. They never came. Darnold threw five touchdowns and no interceptions in those last four games.

The clock never struck midnight, and Sam Darnold won a title before the likes of Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson and Baker Mayfield — Darnold’s fellow 2018 draftees.

“His teammates love him,” Macdonald said. “All he has done since he’s walked in the door has just been a tremendous player on our football team and a tremendous leader who is the same guy every day. And that’s who he is. And that’s how we need to talk about him moving forward.”

For the Seahawks, this is no redemption story. This is the only Sam Darnold they know. After a four-interception game in a 21-19 loss to the Rams, it became clear how much his teammates believed in him when Ernest Jones made it clear Darnold was his guy with a few expletives aimed at anyone who had anything negative to say about his quarterback.

Seahawks receiver Jackson Smith-Njigba certainly has no complaints. While catching passes from Darnold,

Smith-Njigba won the NFL Offensive Player of the Year after 119 catches for 1,793 yards and 10 touchdowns.

“He’s a beast,” Smith-Njigba said. “He’s everything that you want in a quarterback and a leader. He led his troops today like he’s been doing all season.

“He doesn’t let the noise get to him. He’s a baller, man, and I’ve been saying it. I’ve been saying it. The media, they have their own — they want to talk about some, but he’s a world champ, and that’s something you can’t take from him. That’s something that’s cemented in history.”