Seahawks QB Sam Darnold Makes Major Announcement Ahead of Season

Sam Darnold has had a big year professionally, signing a three-year, $100.5 million contract with the Seattle Seahawks in March.

The 28-year-old quarterback is doing quite well off the field, as well.

Darnold and his longtime girlfriend Katie Hoofnagle announced their engagement in an Instagram post on Monday.

“YES!!!!!,” Hoofnagle said in the social media post, which included a photo of Darnold dropping down to one knee in California to ask Hoofnagle for her hand in marriage.

“Huge!! Congrats to you both,” the Seahawks replied on their Instagram account.

Couple Went Public With Their Relationship in 2023

Hoofnagle is also an athlete, having played club soccer in college. She graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2020 with a degree in Marketing and Business Administration.

The couple went public with their relationship in 2023 when Darnold was with the San Francisco 49ers.

In an interview with Us Weekly in March, Darnold gushed about Hoofnagle, describing her as a stabilizing presence in his life.

“The support [from] my girlfriend is unbelievable,” Darnold said at the RX3 Charity Flag Football Tournament at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, Calif. “You know, the fact that she just understands it.

“She’s a former athlete herself, and (she) just gets kind of the grind of everything. When I just want to chill, she’s very up for that, especially during the season.”

Darnold, who is now in his eighth NFL season, joked that Hoofnagle helps him break up his hectic schedule by getting him out of the house.

“If she wants to go somewhere and I just want to chill, she’s like, ‘Let’s go out to dinner. We need to go to dinner,’” Darnold said.

Sam Darnold Had a Breakthrough Season in Minnesota

Darnold enjoyed a resurgent season with the Minnesota Vikings in 2024, throwing for a career-high 4,319 yards and 35 touchdowns compared to just 12 interceptions.

The Vikings went 14-3 and made the NFC playoffs but lost 27-9 to the Los Angeles Rams in the wild card round. Darnold completed 25 of 40 passes for 245 yards, one touchdown and one interception and was sacked nine times.

Darnold admitted last month in an interview with the Athletic that his exit from Minnesota was “tough to swallow,” seeing as how things ended in the playoffs.

“For lack of a better term, we laid an egg as an offense,” Darnold said. “And I think, for me personally, that (stinks). I felt like we were a really good team, but at the end of the day — and this is gonna sound a little pessimistic — but when you get to the end of it and you don’t win the whole thing, you failed.”

Now, Darnold has a chance to script a different ending in Seattle.