--- title: Sam Darnold's 'Seeing Ghosts' Comments Gets Memed description: The Patriots defense apparently had Jets quarterback Sam Darnold seeing ghosts during New England's 33-0 rout of New York in Week 7. canonical: https://time.com/5707042/sam-darnold-meme/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-10-22T14:56:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:00:57.729Z og:title: Hilarious Quarterback's 'Seeing Ghosts' Comment Gets Memed Until Dawn og:description: The Patriots defense had Sam Darnold spooked og:url: https://time.com/5707042/sam-darnold-meme/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d8ae72d49b3445d/698a04af01168292c797e664/sam-darnold-seeing-ghosts.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Sam-Darnold-Seeing-Ghosts og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hilarious Quarterback's 'Seeing Ghosts' Comment Gets Memed Until Dawn twitter:description: The Patriots defense had Sam Darnold spooked twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d8ae72d49b3445d/698a04af01168292c797e664/sam-darnold-seeing-ghosts.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Of Course the Jets Quarterback's Perfectly Reasonable 'Seeing Ghosts' Comment Got Memed Until Dawn > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=4cded439-4968-4389-beee-08f0f04288ce&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Oct 22, 2019 2:56 PM UTC  Sam Darnold of the New York Jets attempts a pass against the New England Patriots during the second half at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on October 21, 2019. Sam Darnold of the New York Jets attempts a pass against the New England Patriots during the second half at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on October 21, 2019. Steven Ryan—;Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Oct 22, 2019 2:56 PM UTC The [Patriots](http://money.com/money/5634122/how-much-will-tom-brady-make-2019-super-bowl/) defense apparently had Jets quarterback Sam Darnold spooked during New England’s 33-0 rout of New York on Monday night. In the midst of a true [NFL](https://time.com/5655381/jay-z-nfl-kaepernick-controversy-responses/) career low, a sidelined Darnold admitted that he was [“seeing ghosts”](https://time.com/money/5660624/burger-king-ghost-whopper-halloween/) while mic’d up for the ESPN broadcast of the prime time game. Darnold went 11 of 32 for just 86 yards against the Patriots. He also threw four interceptions and gave up a fumble. > [](https://twitter.com/RochieWBZ/status/1186455154024951808) When asked to clarify his comment at the postgame press conference, Darnold explained that he was just trying to express what was going wrong to the Jets coaches. “I think for me, when I talk to the coaches, I just gotta be straight up,” he said. “For me, I just gotta see the field a lot better. That’s kinda what that means. It was a rough day out there, a rough night out there. Obviously, I got to get better and learn from the mistakes. But we will get better.” > [](https://twitter.com/andy%5Fvasquez/status/1186503131120783360) But by then, the internet had already latched on to Darnold’s perfect October admission. See some of the reactions to Darnold’s “seeing ghosts” comment below. > [](https://twitter.com/WillBrinson/status/1186455078011621376) > [](https://twitter.com/spidadmitchell/status/1186454368985341954) > [](https://twitter.com/JReidNFL/status/1186468674573684736) > [](https://twitter.com/CreacyChris/status/1186454037694054400) > [](https://twitter.com/reedsox13/status/1186475101669208065) > [](https://twitter.com/Shera92/status/1186455786932899840) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5707042/sam-darnold-meme/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5707042/sam-darnold-meme/"},"headline":"Of Course the Jets Quarterback's Perfectly Reasonable 'Seeing Ghosts' Comment Got Memed Until Dawn","datePublished":"2019-10-22T14:56:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:00:57.729Z","description":"The Patriots defense had Sam Darnold spooked","url":"https://time.com/5707042/sam-darnold-meme/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Football","NFL","onetime","Sports"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d8ae72d49b3445d/698a04af01168292c797e664/sam-darnold-seeing-ghosts.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d8ae72d49b3445d/698a04af01168292c797e664/sam-darnold-seeing-ghosts.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Sam-Darnold-Seeing-Ghosts","caption":"Sam Darnold of the New York Jets attempts a pass against the New England Patriots during the second half at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on October 21, 2019.","creditText":"Steven Ryan—;Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5707042/sam-darnold-meme/","name":"Of Course the Jets Quarterback's Perfectly Reasonable 'Seeing Ghosts' Comment Got Memed Until Dawn"}}]}] ```