How a kid with one hand defied every expectation to reach the NFL – and how he’s still changing the game today.
It’s a sweltering July afternoon in St. Petersburg, Florida, and a four-year-old boy stands in his family’s kitchen, tears streaming down his face. The pain is unbearable – the kind that makes you desperate. So desperate that little Shaquem Griffin has grabbed a butcher knife and is attempting to cut off his own partially formed left hand.
His mother, Tangie, walks in and freezes at the sight.
This isn’t a scene from some psychological thriller. It’s the pivotal moment that would alter the course of Shaquem Griffin’s life – and eventually, the history of the NFL.
“I had a choice,” Tangie Griffin told Sports Illustrated years later, reflecting on decisions that began before Shaquem was even born. As a nurse, she had declined risky prenatal surgery when ultrasounds showed amniotic bands wrapped around her unborn son’s wrist. “But in my mind, that is not an option at all.”
The day after finding her son with the knife, Tangie scheduled an amputation.
Remarkably, the boy was playing street football the following day.
Shaquem and Shaquill Griffin: The Twin Bond That Shaped an NFL Career
If this were just a story about overcoming adversity, it would be compelling enough. But Shaquem Griffin’s journey from one-handed child to NFL linebacker isn’t just about what he lost – it’s about what he gained: an unshakable support system centered around his twin brother, Shaquill.
Born just minutes apart on July 20, 1995, the Griffin twins formed a bond that would ultimately reshape college football recruitment and NFL draft strategies. Shaquill, the slightly more highly-recruited high school prospect, famously delivered ultimatums to college scouts: “If you want me to play for your school, then my brother has to come with me. We are a package,” he insisted to recruiters, turning down offers from prestigious programs that wouldn’t take both brothers.
Only the University of Central Florida offered them what they wanted.
“My brother made a lot of sacrifices for me,” Shaquem later reflected. “The coaches wanted to see if my brother could do well without me.”
Their father, Terry Griffin, had raised them with an uncompromising philosophy. When other parents or coaches suggested modifications or special treatment for Shaquem, Terry shut it down immediately. His consistent message: “Don’t ever let anybody tell you what you can’t do. Show them what you can do.”
This wasn’t just tough love – it was calculated preparation for a world that would constantly underestimate his son.
Shaquem Griffin’s Track and Field Success Beyond Football
At Lakewood High School, Shaquem Griffin wasn’t content to excel in just one arena. While football might have been his eventual ticket to fame, his track and field achievements were, by any measure, extraordinary.
The stats tell the story: state champion in triple jump with a personal best of 15.07 meters (over 49 feet), school record holder, and the Tampa Bay Times Track and Field Athlete of the Year in Pinellas County. He competed in the 4×100 relay, shot put, and discus as well, drawing interest from track powerhouses like LSU, Miami, and Purdue.
To put it simply: even if Shaquem Griffin had never played a down of football, he’d still have been a remarkable athlete.
But the gridiron was calling. And college football would present challenges far beyond anything he’d faced in high school.
The UCF Turning Point
College athletics can be brutally unsentimental. Your high school accolades? They don’t matter anymore. Your inspiring story? Save it for the alumni magazine.
Shaquem learned this the hard way at UCF, where he initially languished on the bench and even temporarily lost his scholarship. The previous coaching staff didn’t see a place for him.
“He didn’t think football was a fit,” Shaquem said of one former coach.
Then came Scott Frost.
When Frost took over as head coach in 2016, he saw something others had missed: not a disability, but a distinctive advantage – a player with unique leverage, extraordinary speed for his position, and a chip on his shoulder the size of Central Florida.
The results were immediate and spectacular.
Shaquem Griffin’s 2016 junior season reads like a video game stat line:
- 92 total tackles (57 solo)
- 20 tackles for loss
- 11.5 sacks
- American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year
His senior campaign was equally impressive, helping lead UCF to an undefeated season while adding more hardware to his trophy case: Peach Bowl Defensive MVP, Second-Team All-American honors, and the Senior CLASS Award.
But it wasn’t just his on-field performance that turned heads. In the weight room, working with strength coach Zach Duval, Shaquem Griffin developed innovative techniques to overcome his physical difference. By his junior year, he was squatting 700 pounds. For bench presses, he used a prosthetic with a carbon fiber sleeve and clamp to grip the bar.
As word of the one-handed linebacker dominating the American Athletic Conference spread, NFL scouts began to take notice. But the football establishment still had questions.
Big questions.
The NFL Combine Performance That Shocked the World
The NFL Scouting Combine is designed to quantify the unquantifiable, to reduce the beautiful chaos of football talent to a series of measurable data points. For players with physical differences, it can be an especially daunting gauntlet.
Shaquem Griffin wasn’t even invited initially. When the belated invitation finally came, following public pressure, he had something to prove.
And prove it he did.
When Shaquem Griffin ran the 40-yard dash in 4.38 seconds at the 2018 NFL Combine – the fastest time for a linebacker since official records began in 2003 – the football world collectively dropped its jaw. Then he benched 225 pounds 20 times using a prosthetic attachment.
Suddenly, the narrative shifted from “Can this one-handed player make it in the NFL?” to “How did so many scouts miss on this athletic phenomenon?”
Jim Nagy, a former Seahawks scout who would later become the Executive Director of the Reese’s Senior Bowl, recalled watching Griffin practice at UCF: “Just seeing him that day at practice, and watching the energy he practiced with, then to see that little thing with a teammate after practice, that’s all I needed.”
Shaquem Griffin’s Historic 2018 NFL Draft Moment with the Seahawks
If a Hollywood scriptwriter had pitched Shaquem Griffin’s draft story, studio executives might have rejected it as too on-the-nose, too perfectly sentimental.
The Seattle Seahawks, who had drafted Shaquill Griffin the previous year, selected Shaquem with the 141st overall pick in the fifth round of the 2018 NFL Draft. The twins were reunited as professional teammates, fulfilling a childhood dream that had once seemed impossible.
“It’s something you dream about, you talk about when you’re younger, but for it to actually happen, I definitely couldn’t have imagined that would actually happen,” Shaquill said afterward. “People say ‘a dream come true,’ we actually can say it and mean it.”
With the selection, Shaquem became the first one-handed player drafted into the modern NFL.
The moment transcended sports. Here was proof that difference didn’t mean deficiency, that adaptation could lead to excellence, that the only limits that truly matter are the ones we place on ourselves.
Life in the League
The NFL is a business first – a brutal, production-based industry where sentimentality takes a backseat to Sunday results. Shaquem Griffin was never given special treatment, nor would he have wanted it.
During his three seasons with the Seahawks (2018-2020), Shaquem Griffin carved out a role primarily on special teams, appearing in 46 games with one start. His career stats – 25 tackles and one regular-season sack – don’t tell the full story of his impact.
That first NFL sack came against Sam Darnold of the New York Jets in 2020, but perhaps his most memorable quarterback takedown came in the 2019 playoffs when he sacked future Hall-of-Famer Aaron Rodgers in the divisional round against the Green Bay Packers.
After being waived by Seattle during final cuts in 2020 (though he returned to their practice squad), Griffin signed with the Miami Dolphins in July 2021. His time in Miami was brief – he was released from their practice squad that October without appearing in a regular-season game.
Retiring on His Own Terms
On August 24, 2022, at age 27, Shaquem Griffin announced his retirement from professional football in a powerful essay for The Players’ Tribune titled “Plan A.”
“Football was always Plan B,” he wrote. “My dad used to tell us that all the time… Plan A was to go to college, get an education and do something that would make a positive impact in the world.”
True to form, Shaquem Griffin wasn’t stepping away from football entirely. He was joining the NFL Legends Community, where he would serve as a consultant and mentor to current and former players.
The announcement wasn’t an admission of defeat – it was a declaration of mission accomplished and a pivot to the next challenge.
Shaquem Griffin Today: Motivational Speaker, Advocate, and Mentor
Today, Shaquem Griffin’s impact extends far beyond tackle stats or combine numbers. He’s become one of the sports world’s most sought-after motivational speakers, addressing audiences from college campuses to Fortune 500 boardrooms.
His work with disability advocacy organizations has been particularly impactful. At UCF, he collaborated with Limbitless Solutions, a nonprofit that creates low-cost 3D-printed prosthetic limbs for children. In 2018, he received the Uplifting Athletes Rare Disease Champion Award for his influence on the rare disease community.
In December 2024, Griffin hosted his first “Search for Greatness Combine” through an app called GMTM, helping athletes of all abilities record and improve their performance metrics.
This spring, he’s scheduled to deliver the commencement address at Pitzer College, continuing to spread his message of perseverance and possibility.
“Everyone faces adversity and difficulties throughout life,” Griffin told an audience at VMI. “Do not allow those setbacks to stop you from following your dream. It takes grit, hard work, and determination to reach our goals.”
The Legacy
What makes Shaquem Griffin’s story so compelling isn’t just that he made it to the NFL with one hand – it’s that he never allowed himself to be defined solely by that fact.
Yes, he’s the first one-handed player drafted in the modern NFL era. But he’s also a state champion triple jumper, an All-American linebacker, a twin who inspired unprecedented loyalty, a mentor, a speaker, an advocate, and a living testament to human potential.
“I define myself by adversity and how I’ve persevered,” Shaquem Griffin once said.
His journey reminds us that our greatest limitations are often self-imposed, that “normal” is whatever we decide it is, and that with the right combination of support, determination, and adaptability, even the most improbable dreams can become reality.
As Shaquem himself put it in a letter to NFL GMs before the draft: “If you have a dream and you want to accomplish something, don’t let anybody tell you it’s not possible. Because I’m telling you, it is.”
In a sports world often obsessed with physical prototypes and conventional paths to success, Shaquem Griffin stands as glorious, necessary proof that there’s more than one way to make it – and that sometimes, the most extraordinary achievements come from those we least expect.
If Shaquem Griffin’s story moved you, don’t miss our deep dives into two more NFL game-changers. Read how J.J. Watt became not just a defensive powerhouse but a symbol of resilience and generosity in J.J. Watt: NFL Legend, Comeback King, and Humanitarian Hero. And discover how Jalen Hurts turned a college benching into Super Bowl glory in The Unbreakable: Jalen Hurts’ Rise from Channelview to Super Bowl MVP. Their journeys, like Shaquem’s, redefine what it means to rise.
Photo: By elisfkc from Orlando, FL, United States – Postgame Celebration AAC Championship, CC BY-SA 2.0,
