Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold is a Super Bowl champion.
That seemed like an unlikely destination for Darnold when he was traded by the Jets three years after being selected with the third overall pick and it didn’t feel any likelier when he bounced from the Panthers to the 49ers before the end of his sixth season. Darnold got back on track with the Vikings last year and rose even higher in leading the Seahawks to the top of the NFC during the regular season.
Darnold wasn’t able to replicate his big day from the NFC Championship in Super Bowl LX, but he avoided mistakes during the 29-13 win over the Patriots and touched on his unusual career path while speaking to Melissa Stark of NBC after the game.
“It’s unbelievable,” Darnold said. “Everything that’s happened in my career, but to do it with this team — I wouldn’t want it any other way. I’m so proud of our guys. I can’t say enough great things about our defense and special teams.”
Darnold said in the days leading up to the Super Bowl that he wasn’t interested in personal vindication, but his history was on his mind on Sunday and his persistence showed when Stark asked what message others can draw from his story.
“As long as you believe in yourself, anything is possible,” Darnold said.
Darnold may have cribbed that line from Kevin Garnett, but his story does a spectacular job of making that point.
When the 2026 regular season begins on the Thursday night after Labor Day (there’s a chance it’ll start a day or two earlier given the long trip the 49ers and Rams will make to Australia), the Seahawks will be hosting the game and hanging their newest banner.
The options include a potential Super Bowl rematch with the Patriots.
Other candidates are the Chiefs, Chargers, Bears, Cowboys, Giants, and Seattle’s NFC West rivals — the Rams, 49ers, and Cardinals. (Again, the 49ers and Rams could be meeting in Melbourne in Week 1.)
Ten years ago, the Broncos and Panthers had a Week 1 rematch following Super Bowl 50. So it’s not unprecedented.
Still, based on tonight’s outcome, there may not be much appetite for an immediate rematch.
The notion that the 49ers’ uptick in injuries flows from the proximity of an electrical substation to their practice facility — as nonsensical as it seems — continues to mushroom.
Appearing on Audacy’s You Better You Bet with Nick Kostos, 49ers receiver Kendrick Bourne addressed the power-plant point.
“I kind of buy it,” Bourne said. “I’m a conspiracy theorist, so I don’t know. Our grass is brown on that side and the soccer field on the other side is green. So that kind of trips me out a little bit, but I don’t know. It’s so much research they probably have to do, but whatever we can do to help prevent injuries, we got to look into. So [G.M.] John [Lynch] said he’s gonna do it, and I think he will. So it’s just crazy that that’s even a thing, but that thing is a crazy, like, I was looking at it one time at practice, and I just was like randomly kind of getting dozed off. Like, that thing is huge. Like, it’s carrying real power. So I don’t know if they can crank it more. crank it less, but I think it’s serious. I don’t know.”
Kostos asked whether other players agree that it’s a thing.
“Everybody’s different,” Bourne said. “Everybody’s different. Some people don’t care. Some people talk about it. Some people talk about it more than others, but I’m just one of those trolls that like, ‘Man, nah, bro, something ain’t right.’”
Again, the whole topic feels like social media-driven bullshit, with all due respect. The 49ers have practiced there since 1988. Football is inherently physical and demanding. Injuries happen for a bunch of different reasons.
This isn’t a rash of broken kneecaps in the break room at Dunder Mifflin. Football players get injured while practicing and playing football. The challenge for the 49ers is to treat this as not simply a medical issue but as a P.R. issue to and say, loudly and clearly, that it’s not an issue — and that anyone who suggests otherwise is cuckoo for power-plant Cocoa Puffs.
It may be too late for that. The only complete fix at this point may be to move to a new practice facility.
Two former 49ers running backs were finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2026. Roger Craig got in. Frank Gore did not. Gore says he’s happy with that.
Gore told the San Jose Mercury News that he’s happy that Craig, who was a seniors nominee and unlikely ever to be on the ballot again, got in on his own and won’t have to share the attention with another 49ers running back.
“I’d rather him get all the shine than both of us go in at the same time,” Gore said.
Gore was in his first year of eligibility and will have many more chances for his name to appear on the ballot.
“Of course I want to be in. I’m a competitor,” Gore said. “But what can I do? Everyone respects what I did. It’s all good. I had two ACLs [surgically repaired in college] and was a first-ballot finalist. That’s a blessing. It’s all good.”
Both running backs played most of their careers for the 49ers, with a 15-year gap between them. Craig played for the 49ers from 1983 to 1990. Gore played for the 49ers from 2005 to 2014.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame welcomed five new members on Thursday night at NFL Honors.
Quarterback Drew Brees, running back Roger Craig, wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, linebacker Luke Kuechly and kicker Adam Vinatieri will have their busts in Canton.
Brees and Fitzgerald are first-ballot Hall of Famers, and Kuechly and Vinatieri were in their second year of eligibility.
Craig has waited 28 years for his knock on the door. He was one of three seniors candidates in a group that also included Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft as the coach and contributor candidates, respectively.
For the second consecutive year, only one of the five finalists in that group made it into the Hall of Fame. Sterling Sharpe was the only inductee of that group in the Class of 2025.
Seniors L.C. Greenwood and Ken Anderson, like Belichick and Kraft, did not receive the 80 percent required for induction in the Class of 2026.
After much criticism about the selectors’ failure to enshrine Belichick in his first year of eligibility, the elections of Brees, Craig, Fitzgerald, Vinatieri and Kuechly were met with a standing ovation when announced at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.
Brees learned of his election from Dan Fouts; Ronnie Lott and Charles Haley surprised Craig with the news; Morten Andersen had the honor of telling Vinatieri; Randy Moss informed Fitzgerald; and Julius Peppers was the Hall of Famer who welcomed Kuechly into the Hall.
The Hall of Fame’s membership now stands at 387.
The newest members’ enshrinement will take place Saturday, Aug. 8 in Canton.
