Kenneth Walker Paid Special Tribute to Injured Teammate Zach Charbonnet During SB Win

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Seahawks running back Zach Charbonnet may not have been able to play in his team's Super Bowl win on Sunday night, but his position-mate (and game MVP) Kenneth Walker III made sure the RB felt included, anyway.
Speaking to reporters after Seattle defeated the Patriots in a 29–13 win, Walker revealed that he had written Charbonnet's number on his wrist as a tribute to his fellow running back, who tore his ACL during the team's divisional round win vs. the 49ers back in January.
"I know how hard he works, I see him every day," Walker said of Charbonnet after the game. "Day in and day out, he working hard, doing recovery, eating right, sleeping. He just goes about everything the right way and, you know, for somebody like that to get hurt, it sucks. But I wrote his number on my wrist."
Walker said he was going to flash Charbonnet's number if/when he scored, but he ultimately couldn't, since his one touchdown of the game was called back over an offensive holding penalty.
Watch those full remarks below:
Kenneth Walker says he had Zach Charbonnet’s number written on his wrist today as a tribute to his teammate who tore his ACL against the 49ers and missed the postseason pic.twitter.com/OKVeBhA7p4
— Andrew Quinn (@andrewquinny) February 9, 2026
Walker and Charbonnet made a formidable duo during the regular season, when the former put up 1,027 yards and five touchdowns, and the latter notched 730 yards and 12 touchdowns. And though it really is a bummer they couldn't play together in the big game, at least Walker found a way to honor his friend while snagging the Lombardi for them both.
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Brigid Kennedy is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in November 2024, she covered political news, sporting news and culture at TheWeek.com before moving to Livingetc, an interior design magazine. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, dual majoring in television, radio and film (from the Newhouse School of Public Communications) and marketing managment (from the Whitman School of Management). Offline, she enjoys going to the movies, reading and watching the Steelers.