SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — San Darnold's NFL career had hit rock bottom when he arrived in San Francisco in 2023 after failing at two spots to live up to his high draft billing.
Less than three years later, he's ready to step on football's biggest stage as the starting quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl on Sunday.
“I always believed in myself,” Darnold said. “I knew that I could do this at a high level, and that was really it. That’s what kept me going and I knew at some point an opportunity would arise. But even if it didn’t, I knew I did everything that I can to become a better player year in and year out.”
Darnold's journey from draft bust to Super Bowl quarterback is a remarkable one and it began during his one year with the San Francisco 49ers in 2023, when he started only one game and threw only 46 passes.
That season ended in a trip to the Super Bowl, where the 49ers lost 25-22 in overtime to Kansas City, when he was a backup generating little interest instead of one of the game's biggest stars at a podium answering questions from throngs of reporters.
“I was somewhere over there, standing, hoping people would talk to me,” he said at Super Bowl Opening Night on Monday. “Now I’m here.”
How he got here, where he will be dressing for the Super Bowl in the same locker room at Levi's Stadium where he spent the 2023 season as a backup, is a tale of perseverance.
Darnold came into the NFL as the third-overall pick of the New York Jets in 2018 following a stellar college career at Southern California, but he struggled from the start.
He had a 13-25 record and a 78.6 passer rating — the second worst in the league among 43 quarterbacks with at least 15 starts from 2018-20 — and became the butt of jokes when a microphone caught him saying he was “seeing ghosts” during a particularly bad performance in a prime-time loss to New England in 2019.
The Jets unloaded him to Carolina after the 2020 season and Darnold wasn't any better in two seasons shuttling in and out of the lineup with the Panthers as he posted a 77.3 passer rating in 18 games.
That led Darnold to take a backup contract in free agency with the 49ers at $4.5 million for the 2023 season. He wanted to immerse himself in coach Kyle Shanahan's offense that has become so popular in the league.
“It was great to play in Kyle’s system, to have Kyle as a coach, to hear him talk about football during OTAs and training camp, when we had a ton of time to talk to him as a quarterback,” Darnold said. “I soaked all those moments in to just be able to learn as much as I could, just because I felt like he talked about football in a way that I had really never heard before so that was really special for me.”
Darnold beat out Trey Lance to be the backup to Brock Purdy, whose path was in complete contrast to Darnold's. Purdy entered the league in 2022 as the last pick in the draft and became an MVP finalist in the 2023 season.
Darnold said he learned so much from watching Purdy practice and prepare and from quarterbacks coach Brian Griese, who had played 11 seasons in the NFL.
But even though he wasn't playing, the physical gifts that made Darnold the No. 3 pick were evident.
“He was at a point of his career where he was at a crossroads,” said Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, who was the passing game coordinator in San Francisco in 2023. “He came into that role as Brock Purdy’s backup. He was not a guy that was looking to jump in and take Brock’s spot. He was supporting our quarterback. And all the while, you could see just the talent that he had and how he grew that season. Brian Griese was a phenomenal coach and continued to develop him. Then when he got his chance he was ready.”
That happened the next season when Darnold won 14 games as a starter in Minnesota before flaming out in the playoffs. The Vikings then moved on and let him leave in free agency and he came to Seattle to reunite with Kubiak.
Darnold led the Seahawks to 14 wins this season — joining Tom Brady as the only quarterbacks with back-to-back seasons with at least 14 wins — and now is in the Super Bowl.
“We were really fortunate to get him,” Kubiak said. “When he came to us, he was just so much more of a mature player. He had a lot of scars and he used those scars to make himself a better player. So we just got him in the perfect time of his career when he was hungry as he could be. He took all the experience that he had and helped lead our offense.”
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Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold speaks during the NFL Super Bowl Opening Night, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in San Jose, Calif., ahead of the Super Bowl 60 football game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold speaks during the NFL Super Bowl Opening Night, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in San Jose, Calif., ahead of the Super Bowl 60 football game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold speaks during the NFL Super Bowl Opening Night, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in San Jose, Calif. ahead of the Super Bowl 60 football game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Federal officers are temporarily restricted from using tear gas at protests outside a Portland immigration building, a judge in Oregon ruled Tuesday, days after agents fired gas into a crowd of demonstrators that local officials described as peaceful and which included young children.
U.S. District Judge Michael Simon ordered federal officers to not use chemical or projectile munitions unless the person targeted poses an imminent threat of physical harm. Simon also limited federal officers from firing munitions at the head, neck or torso “unless the officer is legally justified in using deadly force against that person.”
Simon, whose temporary restraining order is in effect for 14 days, wrote that the nation "is now at a crossroads.”
“In a well-functioning constitutional democratic republic, free speech, courageous newsgathering, and nonviolent protest are all permitted, respected, and even celebrated,” he wrote. “In helping our nation find its constitutional compass, an impartial and independent judiciary operating under the rule of law has a responsibility that it may not shirk.”
The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Oregon on behalf of protesters and freelance journalists covering demonstrations at the flashpoint U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building.
The suit names as defendants the Department of Homeland Security and its head Kristi Noem, as well as President Donald Trump. It argues that federal officers’ use of chemical munitions and excessive force is a retaliation against protesters that chills their First Amendment rights.
The Department of Homeland Security said federal officers have “followed their training and used the minimum amount of force necessary to protect themselves, the public, and federal property.”
“The First Amendment protects speech and peaceful assembly — not rioting," spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement. “DHS is taking appropriate and constitutional measures to uphold the rule of law and protect our officers and the public from dangerous rioters.”
Judges elsewhere have also considered the issue of federal agents’ use of chemical munitions against protesters, as cities across the country have seen demonstrations against the federal immigration enforcement surge.
Last month, a federal appeals court suspended a decision that prohibited federal officers from using tear gas or pepper spray against peaceful protesters in Minnesota who aren’t obstructing law enforcement. An appeals court also halted a ruling from a federal judge in Chicago that restricted federal agents from using certain riot control weapons, such as tear gas and pepper balls, unless necessary to prevent an immediate threat. A similar lawsuit brought by the state is now before the same judge.
The Oregon complaint describes instances in which the plaintiffs — including a protester known for wearing a chicken costume, a married couple in their 80s and two freelance journalists — had chemical or “less-lethal” munitions used against them.
In October, 83-year-old Vietnam War veteran Richard Eckman and his 84-year-old wife Laurie Eckman joined a peaceful march to the ICE building. Federal officers then launched chemical munitions at the crowd, hitting Laurie Eckman in the head with a pepper ball and causing her to bleed, according to the complaint. With bloody clothes and hair, she sought treatment at a hospital, which gave her instructions for caring for a concussion. A munition also hit her husband’s walker, the complaint says.
Jack Dickinson, who frequently attends protests at the ICE building in a chicken suit, has had munitions aimed at him while posing no threat, according to the complaint. Federal officers have shot munitions at his face respirator and at his back, and launched a tear-gas canister that sparked next to his leg and burned a hole in his costume, the complaint says.
Freelance journalists Hugo Rios and Mason Lake have similarly been hit with pepper balls and tear gassed while marked as press, the complaint says.
“Defendants must be enjoined from gassing, shooting, hitting and arresting peaceful Portlanders and journalists willing to document federal abuses as if they are enemy combatants,” the complaint states. “Defendants’ actions have caused and continue to cause Plaintiffs irreparable harm, including physical injury, fear of arrest, and a chilling of their willingness to exercise rights of speech, press, and assembly.”
Local officials have also spoken out against use of chemical munitions. Portland Mayor Keith Wilson demanded ICE leave the city after federal officers used such munitions Saturday at what he described as a “peaceful daytime protest where the vast majority of those present violated no laws, made no threat, and posed no danger to federal forces.”
“To those who continue to work for ICE: Resign. To those who control this facility: Leave,” Wilson wrote in a statement Saturday night. “To those who continue to make these sickening decisions, go home, look in a mirror, and ask yourselves why you have gassed children.”
The protest was one of many similar demonstrations nationwide against the immigration crackdown in cities like Minneapolis, where in recent weeks federal agents killed two people, Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Associated Press writers Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis and Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed.
Federal agents lobbed tear gas and flash bangs at protesters in front of the ICE building on Jan. 31, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (Allison Barr/The Oregonian via AP)
