Millions of viewers tuned in Sunday night to watch the Seattle Seahawks triumph over the New England Patriots in a 29–13 Super Bowl victory. The team’s quarterback, Sam Darnold, was hailed a champion after years of career turbulence in the NFL—but last night’s game proved that consistency is key. And it’s a lesson he said he picked up from his parents, who taught him to persevere daily, even in difficult times.
“My dad worked as a plumber, and my mom is a PE teacher, and it never mattered what kind of day they had. They were always consistent for me and my sister,” Darnold recently told The Athletic. “[It] didn’t matter what had happened at work; my dad was always out there playing catch with me afterwards.”
Darnold is riding a career high; the athlete walked away from the night with a glitzy Super Bowl ring as well as a whopping $178,000 league-paid bonus. This outcome wasn’t in sight just a handful of years ago, but he stayed consistent, and in less than one year on the Washington State team, he hoisted the Lombardi Trophy in the air. He couldn’t have done it without his teammates, of course—but also the mindset that his parents instilled in him.
“I just naturally kind of learned to be resilient,” Darnold told The Athletic. “I would say my family is a huge part in just my ability to get over things when it’s bad, and they do a good job of keeping me grounded when things are good.
“No matter if I had a bad game or bad rep or a bad series of plays, I always was able to wake up the next day and be able to move on,” he continued. “Early in my career, I was really hard on myself.”
Darnold’s Super Bowl victory marks a career comeback
The Seahawks took home the Super Bowl LX trophy thanks to a Herculean defense effort from the Seattle team—and the victory marked an incredible career breakthrough for the quarterback, who has bounced between teams for the past eight years.
The first blow came when Darnold was traded by the Jets after being the No. 3 pick of the 2018 NFL draft. He then had to start all over again when he went from the Panthers to the 49ers as a backup quarterback in 2023—before the end of his sixth season—and once again when he signed with the Seahawks in 2025.
“It’s unbelievable … Everything that’s happened in my career, but to do it with this team—I wouldn’t want it any other way,” Darnold told NBC, right after winning the Super Bowl. “As long as you believe in yourself, anything is possible.”
Through the good and the bad, he was able to pick himself up, dust himself off, and be there for his teammates: just like his parents were for him.
Mike Darnold, father of the Seahawks quarterback, said being dependable was most important in his 30-year career as a medical gas plumber. Passing that lesson onto his son at a young age set him up for a successful career—and he advised all other budding workers to do the same.
“I took pride in my dependability—being early, willing to stay late, doing whatever it took to finish the job right,” the athlete’s dad told Lowe’s SkillsUSA students last year. “This mindset made me a valuable contributor for my company and customers, which became an example to both of our children, as we witnessed in Sam’s athletic career over the years.”
“One day you open your eyes and it’s, ‘Holy cow, your son is in this position,’” he also told Bleacher Report in 2017. “I mean, it’s crazy, right? Crazy, crazy, crazy—one in a million.”
The leaders who learned invaluable lessons from their parents
People often first learn about the world of work and money from their parents—and that early advice sticks around for life. Julie Sweet, CEO of Accenture, was just 15 years old when her dad taught her an important life lesson.
Raised in a working-class family, Sweet would enter local debate tournaments and speech contests as a teen in the hope of winning cash prizes. She’d often win—but one time she lost at a Lions Club tournament to the daughter of the club’s president, and complained to her dad about the outcome. His response fueled her drive to be a successful leader.
“My father looks at me, and he says, ‘First of all, Julie, you’re never going to be the daughter of the president of the Lions Club. That’s not the family you were born into,’” Sweet told Fortune last year. “‘And I believe you can do anything, but … you have to be so much better than anyone else that they have to give it to you.”
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky also credited his dad’s tough love to trying his hardest in running his $74 billion rental company.
“My dad never told me I was talented or smart, and he probably did me a service,” Chesky said on Simon Sinek’s A Bit of Optimism podcast last year. “He only rewarded effort … If you reward a child for being intrinsically good, they’re going to be afraid to try, because they don’t want to disprove you. But if you reward effort, the only way to fail is to not give it your all.”
