“What Happened to Sam Darnold” Became “How Did Sam Darnold Happen?”

When a player does not fit into a sports fan’s narrative, it may frustrate and confuse the fan. When a player does not fit into a sportsman’s narrative, it may excite and delight the sportsman. Darnold was far from being a secret weapon. It’s not like the evidence was not there. But the support and observations were not there. Even with all of the digital media and all the recordkeeping, the Seahawks seemed to be living off the grid like some Amish NFL community that doesn’t bake anything. For a sports fan, it doesn’t seem right. For a sportsman, it could not be any more perfect. Even without the Amish delights, it couldn’t be any more delicious.

The Seattle Seahawks were boring. The defense decimated the Patriots with almost as much menace as the time Peyton Manning lost to the Seattle Seahawks in a Super Bowl. So how did Darnold do? The simple answer is that he did well enough not to lose the biggest game of his career. The more responsible answer is he arrived transferring from a league-leading turnover regular season into a blank bagel throughout the entire playoffs. Three games and no turnovers. Even against the Patriots heavy hitting defense, Darnold would not sacrifice the ball to them.

Sam Darnold is not building to be watched by sports fans. He is working as an example for sportsmen. Guys like him are the heroes of sports stories. In a sports environment of excessive facts and data, some people forget to read the game biographically. They forget to consider the challenges of their humanity, their growth, and the changes that will alter the outcomes of the measured success.

Sam Darnold has been a hurricane  slowly on the move for a long time. How long Hurricane Sam will last is anyone’s guess. It could be over twenty years like Brady. We might have seen his last full season of success. What can’t be mistaken is the idea that just because he was surrounded by a strong defense does not mean his work is any less relevant to a stargazer looking for a miracle.

Darnold has always been one to seem to take the high road. In Carolina, he was blamed for a team that sucked before he got there and was the worst in the league as soon as he left them. Yet, even there he showed improvement and nearly helped them rise to one game short of a playoff appearance after a meltdown (without him starting) led to the head coach being fired midseason. But Sam’s numbers were not analytically pretty. Therefore, the team sent him packing in favor of trying to find a growing star in Bryce Young. Bryce, to his credit, is growing and capable of achieving a high level of excellence as well. It just is taking some years to get the team out of an era of high disappointment.

Sam Darnold, like Bryce Young, got more attention for losing on bad teams that have no business developing quarterbacks than credit for winning after being malnourished on some awful training. Their growth happened in places that improvement should not exist for such people. For simple Seahawks fans, it seemed to take Sam Darnold one season to win a Super Bowl with the right defense. It took eight years. It took learning to appreciate the moment. It took being a backup on the 49ers and Carolina Panthers. It took a story of verbal abuse, blame, being thrown under the bus by a teammate from the Jets and Panthers. He handled it quietly and strongly enough to take the Seahawks to the Super Bowl. Was he a Seahawks leader? Probably not. But he is an American leader. In a world that constantly tries to cheat to ensure nice guys finish last, it is a joy to see one finish his season after all the second chances and bad guys cheated their way to the top.

Where are the Seahawks? They are on the backburner while media is looking for someone to get arrested, to throw his team under the bus, or for anyone to just get into an elevator or night club. Instead, players are boring the media by taking the high road instead of the elevators. You would think every Tim Tebow fan would be exuberant about last season. Instead, they changed the channel to Kid Rock.

You see, even the fans who wanted players to take the high road may have found themselves being bored by the drama too much to trust in it anymore or to bother looking. In a world that is ready for a series of only God knows what wars we want to fight next, we need entertainment to be a source of escape by inspiration.

You aren’t going to find that escape by looking at the most passing yards or the most wild highlight reels. You will have to look deeper into the game at what the players hope to emulate and the kind of work they want to put to the team. Then, you have to be inspired to share that ethic into whatever work needs to be done. Who is Sam Darnold? He is a king who rules by tenacity. That ring on his finger does not prove it. What proves it is the collection of records and documents by uninvited castle jesters criticizing his every move and mocking his every word even after his brilliant season with the Vikings. What then are you going to do?