Some players come into the NFL and immediately become superstars, forging their path towards Super Bowl glory or top-line individual success.
That hasn't been the case for Seattle Seahawks star Sam Darnold and his path to the grandest stage is proof that success is only ever a sliding doors moment away.
Since being selected with the third overall pick in the 2018 draft, the quarterback has gone on a strange rollercoaster ride.
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Darnold was selected by the New York Jets – the sport's perennial laughing stock – and was tasked with turning the struggling team's fortunes around.
He spent three years with the Jets where the team won a dismal 13 of a possible 36 matches, continuing a tough trend for quarterbacks in the Big Apple.
"I was always kind of sad that Sam wasn't able to fulfill that potential in New York," former general manager Mike Maccagnan told ESPN this week.
"That's where he started his journey and in an ideal world, he would've finished it there."
At the end of 2020 the Jets decided to trade Darnold to the Carolina Panthers, where he would become the first-choice playmaker in 2021 before being snubbed from the role after his first season in favour of Baker Mayfield – more on him later.
His contract wasn't renewed by the Panthers at the end of 2022 which placed Darnold in free agency purgatory, before he was picked up by the San Francisco 49ers.
Darnold eventually sat behind Brock Purdy – who was the "Mr Irrelevant" from his own draft class in 2022, selected with the last overall pick – for the majority of the season.
The experience sitting behind Purdy and working under head coach Kyle Shanahan was one that Darnold credited as valuable for getting his career back on track – and that's exactly what he would do with a move to the Minnesota Vikings in 2024.
He was locked in a battle with rookie JJ McCarthy for the starting position in the Twin Cities but won the job and produced a more-than serviceable season, finishing with 4319 yards and 35 touchdowns as the Vikings earned a playoff spot.
In his maiden NFL post-season appearance, Darnold had an absolute shocker when he was sacked on nine occasions in a heavy loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
The sour ending to his first campaign saw Darnold end up departing the Vikings and joining the Seattle Seahawks, marking his fifth franchise in six seasons.
Few could have predicted what would unfold over the weeks and months that followed, with Darnold leading the Seahawks to top spot in the NFC conference and the Vikings finishing with a 9-8 record, missing out on the playoffs.
Vikings wide-receiver Justin Jefferson conceded things would have fared better for the team if they persisted with Darnold beyond his one-and-done season.
"Yeah, for sure – definitely," Jefferson, one of the NFL's best players, told USA Today.
"Everyone knows the difficulty of the quarterback position, but having a quarterback that already had a season under his belt with us, knew the plays, knew the playbook, knew the players … I definitely feel like we would have done better.
"But it is what it is. It's on to new and better things, but I'm definitely happy and proud for him that he was able to reach it this year."
Darnold's career-best year from a team perspective has seen him pass for 4048 yards (fifth in the NFL) and throw 25 touchdowns (tied ninth) for the Seahawks.
He has had incredible weapons to work with including young gun Jaxon Smith-Njigba, veteran wideout Cooper Kupp and running back Kenneth Walker III.
But despite the results on the board and the Seahawks finishing the regular season with the best record in their conference, Darnold still had his doubters and detractors.
Among those was Cam Newton, who publicly questioned whether Darnold had what it takes to lead a team deep in the playoffs or towards Super Bowl glory.
Newton, like so many others, has been forced to eat his words.
"[Darnold] is playing possessed," the former NFL MVP said on his 4th and 1 Podcast.
"That boy drank that Space Jam juice. The greatest revenge is success, a lot of people are eating crow. I'm one of those people that's eating that crow.
"He showed up and showed out."
Despite many within the NFL landscape giving Darnold his well-earned flowers, veteran journalist Bill Simmons still has his doubts over the 28-year-old.
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It's true – Darnold does have the most turnovers in the league this season – but he has still done enough to steer the Seahawks towards the biggest game possible.
The criticism and question marks are nothing new for Darnold, who is taking it all in his stride as he prepares for the most unlikely of Super Bowl berths.
"I'm being honest with you, I don't ever feel like I had a chip on my shoulder," Darnold told The Dan Patrick Show last week.
"I just don't think that's really my personality. I've never been like that, you know, at any point in my life. I've always just worked hard and treated every single day as its own day.
"With me personally, if I got too high or too low, that affected performance. So, I feel like I was always just better if I stayed right here, just even-keeled."
Of course, a rock-solid Seattle defence has helped his cause, but you simply cannot deny how good Darnold has been throughout the regular and post-season.
With the biggest game of Darnold's career fast-approaching, it's also worth circling back to his introduction to the NFL and why this moment is so incredible.
In the 2018 draft class, the first overall pick was the aforementioned Baker Mayfield, who landed with the Cleveland Browns and had an immediate impact, going from a winless 2017 season to a playoff berth and victory in the 2020 season.
Mayfield has since gone on to play for a number of teams to varying degrees of success.
In that same draft class were some other high-profile NFL quarterbacks, notably Josh Allen (Buffalo Bills, No.7 pick) and Lamar Jackson (Baltimore Ravens, No.32 pick), who have gone on to dominate the league, becoming household names across the globe.
Jackson has won two MVP awards, while Allen took out the sport's top individual prize last season and sits at celebrity status due to his relationship with Hailee Steinfeld.
In that same time period, Darnold was bounced around to multiple organisations and became an NFL journeyman who looked destined for a middling career.
Yet out of all four quarterbacks who were selected in the first round of that draft class, Darnold is the first to reach a Super Bowl – something nobody could have predicted.
It's a story of persistence, determination and will to win that any sports fan can relate to.
It's the type of story that makes sport beautiful and Darnold lifting the Lombardi Trophy on Monday (AEDT) would be the icing on the cake for a remarkable career revival.
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