Derick Hall has told the story of his birth in his own words. “I was born dead,” he told Fox News Digital in 2026, and he has spoken of “a child with a one percent chance to live.” He was born in 2001 at Memorial Hospital in Gulfport, Mississippi, and his mother, Stacy Gooden-Crandle, told AuburnUndercover, as National Review reported: “He was actually born dead.” “They said he’d never be able to walk or be able to talk,” she added. “The doctors wanted me to just let nature take its course. We decided we wanted to fight for him.”
At Memorial, his mother said in the hospital’s own 2023 feature, “he had bleeding in the brain.” Hall remembers what came next: “The earliest thing I remember is being 4 or 5 years old and having an asthma attack. … I was in the hospital for three weeks. Going through all that at a young age, going through breathing machines and treatments and stuff like that, getting through all of that every year at a young age really put me in position to learn how to fight, compete and face adversity.” His mother kept help close: “He loved football. I got the coaches inhalers; I kept one in my purse. Everybody had one just in case he needed it.”
He “was a star defensive end at Auburn,” the Associated Press wrote. “He was selected by the Seahawks in the second round of the 2023 NFL draft.” On Sunday, February 8, 2026, in Super Bowl LX against the New England Patriots, “Hall sacked New England quarterback Drake Maye in the third quarter and stripped the ball away for a fumble that was recovered by defensive lineman Byron Murphy II,” the AP reported from Santa Clara. “Five plays later, Seattle reached the end zone for the first time in the game.” “It was the first turnover of the game.” Seattle won, “a 29-13 victory in Super Bowl 60,” and “Hall finished with two sacks after only getting two all season.”
He has given back to the hospital where he started. “Derick Hall’s One Percent Foundation donates supplies to NICU unit at Memorial in Gulfport,” WLOX reported in September 2024: “Members of the Hall foundation bring baby monitors, diapers, journals, and crotched hats to Memorial hospital in Gulfport.” On Valentine’s Day 2025, WLOX said, “he returned to the place where he defied those odds to give back to the families and babies in the NICU at Memorial Hospital in Gulfport,” and he spoke of coming “from less than 1% chance to live to being in the less than 1% to play in the National Football League.” “Derick founded the Derick Hall One Percent Foundation with his mother,” the Mississippi Legislature wrote in a 2026 resolution, “supporting premature babies and their families.”
In June 2026, after signing a contract extension with Seattle, he told The Seattle Times: “Looking from where I come from to looking to where the Lord has blessed my now, man, it’s unbelievable, it’s unimaginable and just continues to show people no matter where you start, no matter where you come from, there’s always hope.”
Fact check
The facts and where they come from
- He was born with no heartbeat, and doctors gave him a one percent chance to live. Hall, to Fox News Digital: “I was born dead”; “a child with a one percent chance to live.” His mother, Stacy Gooden-Crandle, to AuburnUndercover (National Review): “He was actually born dead.” The Mississippi Legislature’s 2026 resolution: “with no heartbeat.” 125
- His name is Derick Hall. The Associated Press: “linebacker Derick Hall.” The Seattle Times: “Seahawks linebacker Derick Hall.” 46
- He came four months early, weighing 2 pounds, 9 ounces. Memorial Health System, the Gulfport hospital, in its 2023 feature: “his mom, Stacy, was fighting for her 2-pound, 9-ounce baby boy born four months early at Memorial.” The Mississippi Legislature: “from a 2 pound 9 ounce premature baby”; “at Memorial Hospital in Gulfport, Mississippi.” 35
- Doctors said he’d never walk or talk. His mother (National Review): “They said he’d never be able to walk or be able to talk.” 2
- They advised his mother, Stacy, to end life support. His mother (National Review): “The doctors wanted me to just let nature take its course.” The Associated Press: “… advised his mother, Stacy Gooden-Crandle, to allow life support to be discontinued. But Gooden-Crandle refused.” 24
- “We decided we wanted to fight for him,” she said. National Review: “‘He was actually born dead,’ his mother, Stacy Gooden-Crandle, told AuburnUndercover. ‘The doctors wanted me to just let nature take its course. We decided we wanted to fight for him.’” 2
- He spent five months in intensive care, with bleeding on his brain. His mother, in Memorial’s feature: “he had bleeding in the brain.” Memorial: “hospitalized at the Memorial Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for nearly five months.” The Associated Press: “Hall survived five months in an intensive care unit.” 34
- As a boy, asthma kept putting him in the hospital. Hall (National Review): “The earliest thing I remember is being 4 or 5 years old and having an asthma attack … I was in the hospital for three weeks. … getting through all of that every year at a young age really put me in position to learn how to fight, compete and face adversity.” The Associated Press: “frequent hospitalizations and intense asthma throughout his childhood.” 24
- His mom gave his football coaches inhalers, and kept one in her purse. His mother (National Review): “He loved football. I got the coaches inhalers; I kept one in my purse. Everybody had one just in case he needed it.” 2
- He became a star at Auburn, and the Seattle Seahawks drafted him. The Associated Press: “was a star defensive end at Auburn. He was selected by the Seahawks in the second round of the 2023 NFL draft.” The Seattle Times: “taken 37th overall out of Auburn in 2023.” 46
- Then, in the Super Bowl, he sacked the quarterback and ripped the ball away. The Associated Press (Santa Clara): “Hall sacked New England quarterback Drake Maye in the third quarter and stripped the ball away for a fumble that was recovered by defensive lineman Byron Murphy II. Five plays later, Seattle reached the end zone for the first time in the game”; “It was the first turnover of the game.” The Mississippi Legislature: “Sunday, February 8, 2026”; “to win Super Bowl LX.” 45
- Seattle won, 29-13. The Associated Press: “a 29-13 victory in Super Bowl 60”; “Hall finished with two sacks after only getting two all season.” The Mississippi Legislature: “the Seahawks reigned victorious against the New England Patriots 29-13.” 45
- Now his foundation gives back to the hospital that saved him. WLOX (2024): “Derick Hall’s One Percent Foundation donates supplies to NICU unit at Memorial in Gulfport.” WLOX (2025): “he returned to the place where he defied those odds to give back to the families and babies in the NICU at Memorial Hospital in Gulfport.” The Mississippi Legislature: “Derick founded the Derick Hall One Percent Foundation with his mother”; “supporting premature babies and their families.” 785
- “No matter where you start, no matter where you come from, there’s always hope,” he says. Hall, to The Seattle Times (June 3, 2026): “… just continues to show people no matter where you start, no matter where you come from, there’s always hope.” 6
Sources
- Report on Derick Hall’s birth story, with his words to Fox News Digital (Jackson Thompson, May 6, 2026) Fox Business
- NFL Draftee Derick Hall on His Mom’s Fight for His Life as a Preemie (Caroline Downey, April 29, 2023) National Review
- From the NICU to the NFL: How Derick Hall’s Early Arrival Couldn’t Stop Him (April 2023) Memorial Health System, Gulfport
- Strip-sack by Derick Hall paves way for Seattle in Super Bowl (February 9, 2026) The Associated Press, on the Altoona Mirror
- House Concurrent Resolution No. 49, recognizing and commending Derick Hall upon a successful season with the Seattle Seahawks and becoming a Super Bowl LX champion (2026) Mississippi Legislature
- Seahawks’ Derick Hall takes sure thing to stay in ‘special’ place (Bob Condotta, June 3, 2026) The Seattle Times, on the Yakima Herald-Republic
- Derick Hall’s One Percent Foundation donates supplies to NICU unit at Memorial in Gulfport (September 18, 2024) WLOX
- Gulfport alumni, NFL player Derick Hall visits Memorial Hospital (Matt DeGregorio, February 14, 2025) WLOX
Notes
Medical details: the story above gives them in the words Derick Hall and his mother, Stacy Gooden-Crandle, have used in public. Where the Short says something neither of them is quoted saying (four months early, 2 pounds 9 ounces, five months in intensive care, life support), the facts above quote the hospital’s own 2023 feature, the Associated Press or the Mississippi Legislature’s 2026 resolution. Other medical details are left out.
Birth weight: Memorial’s feature and the resolution say 2 pounds 9 ounces; WLOX once said 2 pounds 1 ounce. The Short follows Memorial.
“One percent”: Hall has spoken of “a one percent chance to live” (Fox News Digital) and of “less than 1% chance to live” (WLOX). The Short uses the first.
Life support: the Short follows the Associated Press, which says doctors advised his mother to let life support be discontinued and that she refused; her own words are “The doctors wanted me to just let nature take its course. We decided we wanted to fight for him.”
Football and his lungs: a popular retelling says his mother put him in football to make his lungs stronger; we found no words from him or his mother saying so, so it isn’t used. The Short says only that she gave his coaches inhalers, in her own words.
The strip-sack: the AP says Hall sacked Drake Maye “in the third quarter,” that Byron Murphy II recovered the fumble, and that “Five plays later, Seattle reached the end zone for the first time in the game.” The score at that moment isn’t given here, as we couldn’t confirm it.
Derick Hall and his mother are alive. Only his football record, the outlets’ reporting, the Legislature’s resolution and their own public words are used; nothing else about his family or his private life. Byron Murphy II is named only for recovering the fumble.
Pictures: no free photo shows his birth, Memorial Hospital, his mother, his childhood, his Auburn games, his draft or the Super Bowl strip-sack; every picture of those we found is agency, league or team work, broadcast frames or the family’s own posts, so none is used. The only free photo of Derick Hall shows him on the defensive and special teams coaches’ float at the Seahawks’ Super Bowl LX victory celebration at Lumen Field in Seattle on February 11, 2026, three days after the game (Spc. Ryan Dunn, Washington National Guard); it is shown cropped close around him and, wider, with a Washington National Guard soldier holding the Vince Lombardi Trophy in front. Seahawks players stand under a CHAMPIONS banner at the same celebration; Hall isn’t identifiable in it (Washington National Guard). The victory parade crowd fills 4th Avenue in Seattle the same day (SounderBruce). The flyover over Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara is from game day, February 8, 2026 (Amandamotz), and Levi’s Stadium with its Super Bowl signage is seen from a CBP security flight on February 3, 2026, five days before the game (Jeff Underwood, CBP). Lumen Field is seen at Seahawks player introductions on September 10, 2023, in his rookie season, with no player identifiable (Another Believer), and Jordan-Hare Stadium at Auburn from the air on June 25, 2008, years before he played there (AuburnPilot). Gulfport is seen at the Jones Park sign at the city’s marina on April 3, 2016, not the hospital (Woodlot). The NICU photos are stand-ins: an empty incubator in a NICU suite in New Jersey on May 7, 2026, not his hospital (Famartin), and a mock-up NICU pod with a training mannequin, not a real baby, at Naval Medical Center San Diego on August 14, 2009 (Jake Berenguer, U.S. Navy). The hand holding an asthma inhaler (NIAID, August 23, 2016) and the football on grass (Aloverit, February 25, 2018) are not his.
Photo credits
The archive photos in this story
The photographs and illustrations in this story are in the public domain or shared under open licenses; each one is credited below with its license. Tap one to enlarge it, or follow the link to its Wikimedia Commons page for the full record. The narration, captions and graphics in the Short are our own; its music and sound effects are credited below.
Music and sound effects
Music: Schumann, Kinderszenen, Op. 15: No. 1 'Of Foreign Lands and Peoples (Musopen, public domain); Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition: IV. Bydlo (piano) (Musopen, public domain); Dvorak, Symphony No. 9 'From the New World': II. Largo (Musopen, public domain).
Sound effects: Freesound, CC0.
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