A Super Bowl Champion's First Fight Was in the NICU

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_rB63kC-l3k

Before Derick Hall was a Seattle Seahawks defensive end with a championship ring, he was a premature baby fighting for his life and his mother was fighting right alongside him. This Mother's Day, he's telling the story.

Before Derick Hall became one of the NFL's rising young pass rushers, he was fighting for his life in a hospital NICU.

At 6'3" and 254 pounds, Hall looks built for football. The Seattle Seahawks defensive end plays with the kind of violence and urgency that coaches love. But long before sacks, championships, and Sunday crowds, Hall's first battle had nothing to do with football.

He was born premature.

Small. Fragile. Uncertain.

"The doctors didn't know if I was going to make it," Hall said. "My mom stayed there the entire time. She never left."

This Mother's Day, Hall is sharing that story as part of Huggies' Natural Born Fighters campaign, a national initiative honoring NICU babies and the mothers who fight beside them through the hardest moments of early life.

For Hall, the campaign felt personal immediately.

"This wasn't something I had to think twice about," he said. "That's my real story."

Hall says his mother's resilience shaped the way he approaches everything now, from football to life itself.

"People ask where that mentality comes from, that fight, that edge," Hall said. "It comes from her. Watching her never give up on me, never fold under pressure, that became part of who I am."

The campaign centers around a reality many families quietly experience every year: the NICU changes people. It forces parents into survival mode. It creates pressure, fear, uncertainty, and resilience all at once. Hall says looking back on it now gives him a different level of appreciation for what his mother carried during those early days.

The message he hopes people take away this Mother's Day is simple: acknowledge the sacrifices.

"Call your mom. Thank her. A lot of us don't even realize what our mothers went through for us until we get older."

You can watch the full Natural Born Fighters campaign video and learn more about Huggies' support for NICU families through Huggies® and the National Diaper Bank Network partnership.

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This story was originally published May 9, 2026 at 10:13 PM.