Seattle Seahawks linebacker and recent Super Bowl hero Derick Hall and his mother, Stacy Gooden-Crandle, have partnered with the classic American diaper brand Huggies to share Hall’s story of survival as an infant.
Hall and Gooden-Crandle starred in the brand’s “Natural Born Fighters” advertisement, showcasing Hall’s miraculous journey from a baby with a 1% chance to live to Super Bowl champion. The campaign celebrates Hall and other figures in history who were born in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) with low survival chances after premature births, including Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton.
For Gooden-Crandle, the partnership is rooted in memories that she still holds close.
“Both of my children actually wore Huggies,” she said. “And I actually had one of their very first diapers… but now you gotta think, that’s 25 years ago, think about all the designs that they’ve done now… working with the NICU nurses and doctors to develop a diaper specifically for NICU babies, that to me states the best fight that you could ever want to have for a brand that wants to make sure that NICU babies have the best opportunities at the very beginning of their fight.”
SEAHAWKS SUPER BOWL HERO DERICK HALL OPENS UP ABOUT HOW ‘GOD’ SAVED HIM FROM NEAR-CERTAIN DEATH
Hall had a 1% chance of survival when he was born four months premature at just 23 weeks gestation, weighing just two pounds, nine ounces. He was born without a heartbeat, suffering from a brain bleed.
“I wasn’t born … breathing,” he told Fox News Digital. “I was born dead.
Gooden-Crandle told Fox News Digital those first days of her son’s life were filled with uncertainty and fear.
“Emotional, a lot of uncertainty, scared,” she said of her emotions in the days that followed her son’s premature birth. “But… those weren’t the feelings that I was feeling during Derick’s birth. I just trusted that God would work everything out.”
The journey paid off as Hall made his mark on NFL history when he came up with a tone-setting strip sack in the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots this February.
“You can’t tell me that a child with a one percent chance to live… ends up being a Super Bowl champion one day without the Lord being in their lives,” Hall said. “That’s a miracle in itself.”
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