Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold secured a Super Bowl championship in Super Bowl LX, leading the team to victory over the New England Patriots and completing a notable career turnaround. The win sparked widespread social media reaction, celebrating the quarterback’s journey from a prominent draft prospect to a champion after years of professional adversity.
Darnold was selected third overall in the 2018 NFL Draft by the New York Jets, a position that generated significant expectations. His tenure with the Jets and later the Carolina Panthers was marked by inconsistent play and struggled to meet that early promise. Following these challenging periods, he served as a backup quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers and the Minnesota Vikings before joining the Seattle Seahawks.
The narrative of Darnold’s career became intertwined with internet culture during his early NFL years. A specific 2019 meme format, featuring an image of him pointing while paired with various humorous ailments or excuses, became widely circulated. This meme, while often lighthearted, contributed to a public perception of him as a player subject to jokes. Despite this, Darnold maintained a fan base, with online communities dedicated to both supporting and playfully referencing his career.
His performance with the Seahawks throughout the 2025 season culminated in the Super Bowl victory, a result that reversed previous perceptions. Social media responses following the game largely focused on the theme of an underdog achieving the pinnacle of the sport after previous setbacks.
The championship represents a significant personal and professional milestone for Darnold, concluding a seven-year NFL journey that defied early prognostications. For the Seattle Seahawks, the victory adds a recent championship to their legacy. The event highlights the sports narrative of resilience, where a player once noted more for meme culture than on-field success reached the sport’s most prestigious title. The public reaction underscores how such comebacks resonate widely within sports discourse.
