​The key to the Seahawks’ opening this season the way the ended the last one?It’s Sam Darnold no longer hammering away at his house, but painting it.That’s the key a sports psychologist used to unlock the quarterback’s mind and his career two years ago, before Darnold’s only, standout season with the Minnesota Vikings.It’s the key to his Seahawks beating the New England Patriots Wednesday in the NFL kickoff game, the Super Bowl 60 rematch at Lumen Field (5:20 p.m., KING-5 television).It’s the key to Seattle “running it forward,” as coach Mike Macdonald says, getting back to the Super Bowl again this next February.Darnold was a star quarterback at USC. He was the third pick in the 2018 draft, by the New York Jets.He had three, failed seasons in New York. He led the league in interceptions there as a rookie, infamously telling Jets teammates he was “seeing ghosts” during a particularly humbling game. Then came his two seasons, with more losses than wins combined, for the Carolina Panthers.After the 2023 season as Brock Purdy’s backup in San Francisco, Darnold signed in free agency in March of 2024. That spring the Vikings took Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy to be their franchise quarterback with the 10th-overall pick in the draft.Darnold was turning 27 years old. His career record as a starting quarterback in the NFL was 21 wins and 35 losses. He was wondering if this was what his NFL career would end up being.That’s when Darnold met for the first time with a sports psychologist. The QB told the story for the first time publicly this spring, on The Green Light Podcast hosted by former NFL player Chris Long.The psychologist got Darnold to see his football life from San Clemente, California, High School to USC to the NFL as more than a decade spent building a house. He told Darnold that’s how he got into and stayed in the NFL. by hammering away at nails, just building and building that house.“At this point in your career,” the sports psychologist he didn’t name told Darnold in 2024, “you’ve developed such a great base and great foundation for your house. It’s time to start painting the house, and using a brush.“You need to tell yourself you’re really good, and you deserve to be here,” was the psychologist’s lesson to the QB.“Start patting yourself on the back a little bit more,” he told him, instead of just pounding and pounding away.That unlocked Darnold’s mind. And his career.Since that revelation, Darnold’s life has skyrocketed.He has gone 31-7 starting for the Vikings after McCarthy got a season-ending knee injury in the 2024 preseason and for the Seahawks last season. This past January Darnold joined Tom Brady as the only quarterbacks in NFL history to win 14 games in consecutive regular seasons.Darnold has started the first four playoff games of his career since his revelation with the sports psychologist. He has won his first Super Bowl. He is recently married, this April to his longtime gal K