Minnesota Vikings QB Sam Darnold Has The Coolest Possible Grandpa

The Sam Darnold era has begun for the Minnesota Vikings and the early returns have been encouraging. The team is 2-0 and the offense has been running smoothly through the 25-year-old quarterback that is already on his fourth team.

Darnold is a California native who was drafted by the New York Jets in 2018 out of the University of Southern California. His parents were both excellent athletes, with his dad playing college football and his mom a standout volleyball player.

Get our free mobile app

However, Darnold's athletic lineage stretches back even further. His grandfather was an Olympian, firefighter and actor named Richard "Dick" Hammer.

Hammer was a firefighter that took up acting on the side. He eventually starred in over 100 commercials before being offered a starring role in a new TV show called Emergency!.

Despite participating in volleyball at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo and starring in Emergency!, his most memorable role -smokes- both of those accomplishments.

I sh*t you not, this is Sam Darnold's Grandfather, he was the Marlboro man
byu/ChargerRTHemi inminnesotavikingsH

Hammer played the Marlboro Man in the cigarette company's advertisements from 1970 until 1980 and was the fourth in a series of four men to play the cowboy character.

He famously left Emergency! halfway through the show's first season, as he decided that being a real firefighter was more rewarding than just playing one on TV. He served as a captain with the Los Angeles County Fire Department until retiring in 1983.

Hammer passed away at age 69 in 1999, shortly after Sam Darnold's second birthday.