Seahawks Super Bowl hero Derick Hall opens up about how ‘God’ saved him from near death.

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Derick Hall made his mark in NFL history when he came up with a game-tying sack in the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots this February.

It is unlikely that any footballer will get such a moment in his career. But Hall had to overcome overwhelming odds. Hall had a 1% chance of survival when he was born four months premature at just 23 weeks gestation, without a heartbeat and suffering from a brain haemorrhage.

“I’m not born … I breathe,” he told Fox News Digital. “I was born dead.

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For his mother, Stacy Gooden-Crandle, those early days of her son’s life were filled with uncertainty and fear.

“It’s emotional, a lot of uncertainty, fear,” she said of her feelings in the days following her son’s premature birth. “But… those were not the feelings I had when Derrick was born. I just trusted that God would fix everything.”

That belief became the foundation of how the family made sense of everything that followed.

“That’s probably the most important thing we share,” Gooden-Crandle said of their religion.

“We are people of faith and have been there for most of my life. I joined the church when I was 16 years old, and I just grew as a woman of faith. I raised my children in the church and put my faith in them and allowed them to succeed in their faith in their walk with Christ.”

For Hall, growing up in that area gave meaning to a struggle he had not yet understood.

“It was huge. It was amazing because I never understood why I or my family had to go through what I was going through,” said Hall.

Derick Hall of the Seattle Seahawks watches from the sideline during the national anthem before the NFL game against the Atlanta Falcons at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Ga., on Dec. 7, 2025. (Perry Knotts/Getty Images)

“My teacher always told me that you were immortal because of this, you are blessed to be in this position and God has a great deal, and I think that helped me to be free from this situation and the things that my family and I endured at that time.

“I always talk about my faith because it’s obvious that I’m a child of miracles, and I’m not saying that I’m doing good, I’m blessed, I can’t complain, I’m above the world and I’m blessed… You can’t tell me that a child who has a one percent chance of living and shouldn’t walk, who shouldn’t speak, doesn’t even deserve to be alive, ends up living one day without the Super Bowl.”

Even after surviving as a baby, the challenges did not end, and his childhood looked very different from other children.

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“My hardest time was from age four or five to age 12 or 13,” Hall said. “I would go out and play, but it was only for five minutes at a time and I would have to go and sit down for an hour just to let my body and my lungs get back up, and to this day my lungs haven’t developed, they’ll stay that way, they’ll stay there for three years.”

Those boundaries extended to almost every part of his life, including the seasons when other children were outside playing freely.

But through it all, Hall got the ball, and his condition wouldn’t keep him from the game that would define his life.

Seattle Seahawks’ Derick Hall holds the Vince Lombardi trophy on stage with teammates after winning Super Bowl LX against the New England Patriots at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on Feb. 8, 2026. (Brooke Sutton/Getty Images)

“I started playing football when I was four years old because I was trying to improve my body until I got to the point where I could do things. I started to love it because it was the first thing I could do to feel like a normal child,” he said.

For his mother, that moment brought a difficult decision about her son’s life.

“It was difficult to make the decision to allow him to play, and I allowed him to play flag football at first, but doing that allows him to play football while we still see a neurologist every six months for a brain bleed, it was a difficult decision,” he said.

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“I made sure that all the coaches had asthma pumps and rescue inhalers, and I gave one to the coaches, the coaches, I kept one, to make sure that someone who needed to get to him had what he needed… And as he went on, I got more comfortable.”

The faith that allowed him to play football paid off when Hall received his first college scholarship in the eighth grade, his mother said.

Hall went on to star at Gulfport High School in Mississippi, rising from a four-star prospect to an All-SEC standout at Auburn University.

But even after coming all that way from his premature birth, he still had moments where he dreaded his college life.

“I was nervous in college where I would go to practice in the morning and I wasn’t feeling well, the next day I got up to use the bathroom and I couldn’t take two steps without panting,” said Hall. “We got to the hospital and the doctor said, we’re glad you brought him because if you had waited another hour, he might have been in a worse condition.”

It was a revolution in how he reached his limits. But he never shied away from his passion as a footballer, and remained committed to his faith.

Hall finished his career at Auburn with 147 tackles, 19.5 sacks and 29.5 tackles for loss in 40 games. A highly regarded recruit, Hall developed into an outstanding SEC starter, earning first-team All-SEC honors in 2022 as a team captain, known for his superior strength, speed and high motor.

It earned him the opportunity to take his extraordinary story to the NFL as he went on to become the 37th overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.

But 2025 didn’t turn out the way Derrick Hall expected, at least according to his early calculations. For most of the year, the numbers didn’t match the effort. He was getting pressure, he was getting hit, he was doing a job that didn’t come out of the headlines, but the sacks weren’t coming.

“I’ve been getting hits… I’ve been getting pressure,” Hall said. “But I can’t find the sack… I’m like, Lord, whatever you have planned, let it unfold.”

Statistically, that frustration was real. Hall finished the regular season with just two sacks in 14 games, contributing more as a cornerback than a title pass rusher. But within Seattle’s defense — a unit built on balance, depth and consistent pressure — his role remains vital. The Seahawks relied on the running back rather than a single superstar, finishing the season as one of the league’s best defenses.

And then, almost at once, everything changed.

On the biggest stage in football, in Super Bowl LX against the Patriots, Hall delivered a career-defining performance. He recorded two sacks and a forced fumble, including a key sack that helped break the game open and set the tone for Seattle’s 29-13 win. That one play — driving the offensive line, releasing the ball, and creating a turnover — was one of the defining moments of the game.

In the Hall, it didn’t feel like a coincidence. It felt like time.

“I got to that Super Bowl and I got both sacks, and I’m like, man, there’s no time like God’s time,” he said. “That’s the truth man.”

In a season where he had spent months waiting for the production to match the effort, success came when it mattered most.

“Mentally it was difficult this year,” he said. “But like I said, it’s a blessing.”

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After the game, the numbers told one story: two sacks, a forced fumble, a championship. But for Hall, the meaning ran deeper, tied to something much bigger than a spreadsheet.

“You can’t tell me that a kid with a one percent chance of living… ends up being a Super Bowl champion one day without the Lord being in their lives,” he said. “That’s a miracle in itself.”

Now, Hall and her mother are bringing that story back to where it all began – the nursery – in partnership with Huggies and their “Natural Born Fighters” campaign, which highlights premature babies and the care they receive in those first, most fragile days. This campaign focuses on supporting NICU babies with products designed together with nurses and doctors to meet their specific needs.

For Stacy, relationships are based on memories she still holds on to.

“Both of my kids wore Huggies,” he said. “And I actually had one of their first diapers … but now you have to think, that’s 25 years ago, think of all the designs they’ve made now …

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