They were childhood friends and travel basketball teammates once on the San Clemente Shock, one a quarterback, the other a wide receiver, San Clemente High School graduates and then teammates and roommates at USC.
No one knows Sam Darnold, future franchise quarterback for the New York Jets, better than Jake Russell, his best friend.
“Pretty much everything we always did together we made into a competition, whether it was shooting in his backyard, like seeing who could hit the most shots in a row from the elbow, or just like playing video games at his house or catching the biggest wave out in the ocean, like we were bodyboarding together, and we made each other laugh a good amount,” Russell told The Post by phone.