Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold is turning My Cause My Cleats week into something deeply personal, revealing custom “NEGU” cleats that honor the Jessie Rees Foundation and his long-standing connection to kids fighting cancer before Seattle’s road matchup with the Tennessee Titans.
In a recent video shared on team social media, Darnold unboxed the blue-and-white design, called it “super cool,” and then launched into the story of why this cause has mattered to him since high school.
Sam Darnold’s My Cause My Cleats Spotlight the Jessie Rees Foundation
For the eighth straight season, Darnold is using the NFL’s My Cause My Cleats initiative to support the Jessie Rees Foundation, also known by its rallying cry: NEGU, Never Ever Give Up,
The partnership started long before he put on an NFL jersey. As a high school quarterback at San Clemente, Darnold first heard about the foundation at the Elite 11 quarterback camp, where the group regularly partners with NEGU to introduce top prospects to courageous kids battling cancer.
That is where Darnold met Cade Spinello, a young cancer fighter known as “Super Cade,” whose battle with a brain tumor and stroke turned him into a NEGU junior ambassador and inspiration to athletes across the country.
In the Seahawks’ video, Darnold explains that watching Cade’s fight and resilience pulled him into the work that NEGU does: delivering “JoyJars” packed with toys, activities and encouragement to kids in hospitals so they have something fun to focus on during treatment.
Darnold notes that while the foundation is laser-focused on joy, there are doctors and researchers chasing the ultimate goal — a cure for childhood cancer. NEGU founder Erik Rees has said he hopes that one day those researchers “put them out of business” by making organizations like his unnecessary, a line Darnold echoes in the clip as he talks about why the cause still hits him so hard years later.
What It Means for Darnold, the Seahawks & the Titans Game
Sunday’s matchup in Nashville doubles as My Cause My Cleats week for the Titans, with players on both sidelines wearing custom shoes highlighting charities that matter to them.
The Seahawks enter at 7-3 after a narrow divisional loss to the Los Angeles Rams, a game in which Darnold and the offense struggled in the red zone and saw their NFC West lead slip away. The Titans, meanwhile, are 1-9 and searching for anything positive in a rebuilding season.
Darnold was named one of Seattle’s Week 12 captains, underscoring how the organization views his leadership, even coming off a tough outing. Walking into Nissan Stadium with cleats that celebrate kids like Super Cade gives him a chance to shift the focus from his latest stat line to something bigger.
The cleats themselves are simple and bold — NEGU written across one, Jessie Rees Foundation on the other — but the story behind them adds emotional weight to a game Seattle badly needs to win to keep pace in the NFC playoff picture.
For fans, it also answers the obvious question when cameras zoom in on his feet: What’s on Sam Darnold’s cleats, and why?
Inside the Jessie Rees Foundation & the NEGU Message
The Jessie Rees Foundation was created in honor of Jessie Rees, a California girl who spent her own cancer battle trying to make life brighter for other kids in treatment. Her family turned her handwritten phrase “Never Ever Give Up” into a global mission that now reaches families around the world.
Through JoyJars, hospital visits, family support and an army of volunteers and athlete “All-Stars,” NEGU focuses on joy and encouragement — the emotional side of a fight that can otherwise feel cold and clinical. Darnold is one of several NFL quarterbacks who have used My Cause My Cleats to raise awareness and funds, alongside stars like Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen who’ve also championed kids like Cade.
As Darnold tells it in the team’s video, that simple message — Never Ever Give Up — has been taped inside his locker and written on his shoes since those Elite 11 days. Now, with the Seahawks visiting the Titans on a national stage, he gets to share it again, this time with NEGU splashed across his cleats for everyone to see.
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