Sam Darnold is officially an NFL champion quarterback after the Seattle Seahawks took down the New England Patriots 29-13 in Super Bowl LX on Sunday night. He clearly chose the correct career path, but it turns out one of his long-term goals in ninth grade was to be an ESPN sportscaster.
Darnold — and Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III — joined the SportsCenter desk on Monday at Disneyland, and ESPN anchor Kevin Negandhi brought up a list Darnold made at the age of 14 featuring long-term goals.
“Sam, I go back to you in ninth grade; that list,” Negandhi said, “I’m not sure if your audience knows. This list. You had a list, and you wrote down five long-term goals at the age of 14. No. 1 was go to Southern California. No. 5 was just to be nice to people. No. 2 was to be a sportscaster on ESPN! So, when are you going to come over here? When are you going to take our job?”
“I idolized guys like Neil Everett, Stan Verrett, Kenny Mayne.”
Will Sam Darnold fulfill his childhood goal of being an ESPN sportscaster? 👀 pic.twitter.com/089LkO9Qqv
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) February 9, 2026
“I grew up idolizing anchors, to be honest,” Darnold said. “Because I watched SportsCenter every single day, every night before I went to bed. So, I idolized guys like Neil Everett, Stan Verrett, Kenny Mayne. Like, all those guys. They kind of were the reason that I fell in love with sports. Yourself, Kevin. Yeah, I think that’s kind of where that came from.”
Darnold, 28, should still have a long NFL career ahead. But when he decides he’s done playing football, he’ll surely have his pick of television jobs as an NFL analyst, if not as a traditional anchor position like the SportsCenter voices he grew up idolizing.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.