Emmanuel Acho Slams Puka Nacua for Trying to Make Fun of Super Bowl Champion Sam Darnold

Sam Darnold ended the 2025 season the only way that ultimately matters in the NFL: by winning the Super Bowl. The Seahawks quarterback lifted the Vince Lombardi Trophy after Seattle’s defense completely dominated the New England Patriots in a 29-13 win. It was just the second championship in the Seahawks’ history.

Darnold, despite the lofty scoreline, didn’t really do much. He threw for just 202 yards and one touchdown, numbers that won’t headline any career highlight reel.

But football isn’t played in a vacuum. Seattle’s defense delivered three takeaways, six sacks, and even a defensive touchdown, completely suffocating the Patriots. And when the clock hit zero, Darnold was a Super Bowl champion regardless. Full stop. However, not everyone seemed impressed, especially LA Rams receiver Puka Nacua.

As the game unfolded, Nacua took to X and posted just two words, “Sam Darnold,” paired with a crying-laughing emoji, most likely throwing shade at the QB’s uneventful performance in the game.

That interpretation didn’t sit well with many, and one among them was NFL analyst Emmanuel Acho. Speaking on the Speakeasy podcast, Acho unloaded on Nacua in a blunt, animated rant that left little room for ambiguity. “He laughin’ at y’all,” Acho began. “Puka, you cannot laugh at a man that beat you en route to getting what you do not yet have.”

Acho didn’t stop there. He pointed directly to the on-field results that led to the receiver tweeting from his home while the Seahawks star played in the Super Bowl.

“Puka, you can’t laugh at a Sam Darnold who threw for 346 yards and three touchdowns against you. Puka, you can’t laugh at an individual that outplayed you in the game that mattered most en route to winning a Super Bowl,” he said, referencing Seattle’s earlier NFCCG win over the Rams.

Then came the line that framed the entire argument. “You was in the city getting your checks, but he was in the city getting his rings,” Acho said before dropping the perfect conclusion:

“Come on, Puka. We can’t be laughing at Sam Darnold right now. Laugh at him next season if you want to. But on the day when Sam Darnold’s a Super Bowl champion and Puka, you are not… now is not the time to laugh. Fix your face, Puka Nacua. Fix your face.”

Apart from Acho, many inside the Seahawks’ locker room seemed upset with Nacua’s unnecessary jab. Linebacker Ernest Jones IV, for instance, fired back at the wideout directly on social media, quoting his post and writing: “Ain’t you at home. Goofy a*s.”

Darnold, meanwhile, took the high road. “I feel like I didn’t play as good as I could have, but our defense had our back, and our special teams had our back,” he said after the game. “We got the win… it’s pretty special.”

All said and done, while Puka Nacua may have tried to act funny, the timing couldn’t have been worse. On a night when Sam Darnold became a Super Bowl champion, the Rams star’s joke simply didn’t land.