When the 2025 NFL season kicked off, no one thought the Seattle Seahawks had a chance to be standing where they are today. After all, they had long +6500 odds to win the NFC Championship. Yet defying all odds, they have marched all the way to Super Bowl LX. While some might call their surprising run a divine intervention, linebacker Derick Hall knows better. For him,  overcoming impossible odds isn’t just a season narrative; it is the story of his life.

“They gave me 1% chance to live,” Hall shared in a recent SC Featured segment titled ‘One Percent Chance’. “The doctors wrote me off, and she didn’t.”

In March 2001, four months before his due date, doctors delivered the devastating news to his mother: her son was born without a heartbeat. He was born at just 23.5 weeks with a grade-three brain bleed and, most terrifyingly, no heartbeat. While medical professionals were eventually able to revive him, the prognosis was grim.

Doctors warned Stacy that even if her son survived the night, he would likely spend the rest of his life in a permanent vegetative state. There was no hope in the room, except for the mother who refused to say goodbye.

“I had to give him a shot at living,” his mother, Stacy Gooden-Crandle, said. “I had to give him a shot at being someone who could change the world.”

The battle for survival was grueling. After his birth weight dropped from an initial 2 pounds, 9 ounces to a fragile 1 pound, 13 ounces, the Seattle outside linebacker spent a week on life support. He remained in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for five months, on a ventilator, before he was finally strong enough to go home.

Even then, his journey was far from normal. Because of a severely weakened immune system, Hall’s early years were defined by hospital visits and a sheltered lifestyle.

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He missed out on many childhood activities, admitting, “I couldn’t do much as a kid.”

Today, as he prepares to take the field for the biggest game in sports, the irony of his journey is not lost on him.

“1% of the world gets the opportunity to play in the National Football League, and I had a 1% chance of living,” he remarked. “That’s the definition of defeating the odds.”

The Super Bowl has always held a sacred place in the Hall household. Growing up, it was the social event of the year, filled with family, pizza, and wings. He remembers those parties like it was yesterday, especially the “buffalo chicken tenders” his mother would make every year like a ritual.

Now, as he prepares for the game, he can’t help but realize that families across the world will be having those same parties this Sunday to watch him play. It’s a surreal feeling, he says.

That unwavering support from his mother built the foundation for a career that many thought impossible. He was drafted in the second-round of the 2023 NFL Draft, and today he has become a staple of Seattle’s outside linebacker rotation. This regular season, he appeared in 14 games, recording 30 total tackles and 2.0 sacks. He carried that momentum into the postseason, recording a tackle during Seattle’s narrow 31-27 win over the Rams in the NFC Championship Game.

How flag football saved Derick Hall?

When he was younger, no one in his family thought he would be athletic, let alone play in the Super Bowl. But fate had it written for him. His path to the gridiron actually began as a medical recommendation. When he turned four, doctors suggested his mother enroll him in flag football to help expand his lung capacity. So she did.

“This game just completely changed my life,” Hall admitted. “When I was able to go outside, this gave me some form of just… being able to be a normal kid and experience the things that kids did at a young age. Football did that for me.”

What started as a physical therapy exercise quickly turned into a passion. Eventually, it brought the sense of normalcy he desired. But it wasn’t an easy transition. During his early stages, he could only manage five or six plays at a time before needing to sit out for an entire half. Still, he refused to let his physical limitations define him.

“Whatever it took for me to be able to do that, I was gonna do. And this is where it got me,” he added.

As he’s set to face the New England Patriots on Super Bowl Sunday, Hall isn’t intimidated by the pressure. If he can survive a 1% survival rate, a football game feels manageable to him.