American football quarterback Samuel Richard Darnold, who plays for the National Football League’s Carolina Panthers, was born on June 5, 1997. He was taken third overall by the New York Jets in the 2018 NFL Draft while playing college football at USC, where he made history as the first freshman to win the Archie Griffin Award.
Since the AFL-NFL merger, he was the NFL’s youngest opening-day starting quarterback at age 21. From 2018 through 2020, Darnold started for the Jets before being traded to the Panthers in 2021.
Where did Sam Darnold go to high school?
In San Clemente, California where he was nurtured, Darnold attended San Clemente High School. He played basketball and football after playing baseball his freshman year. Darnold had a successful high school basketball career, winning two South Coast League Most Valuable Player awards and being selected for the All-CIF team.
Darnold’s basketball prowess, according to basketball coach Marc Popovich, helped him succeed in football “The only player [I’ve ever had] who could grab a defensive rebound and throw an accurate 70-foot pass to a player breaking free on the fastbreak almost simultaneously. There were hints of Wes Unseld in it.” Darnold might have “at worst” played college basketball in the Pac-12 Conference or the Mountain West Conference, according to Popovich.
