One-handed footballer grabs his chance

The most compelling story in sport now began when a 4-year-old threatened to cut off his own fingers with a kitchen knife.

Aspiring NFL linebacker Shaquem Griffin during a college game. Picture: AP

The most compelling story in American sport right now began when Shaquem Griffin was a four-year-old and threatening to cut his own fingers off with a kitchen knife.

He had been born with a condition that prevented the digits on his left hand from developing fully, leaving him in searing pain whenever they were touched or pressured.

That night he hit his hand on the side of the bunk beds he shared with his twin brother Shaquill. In agony, he was preparing to attempt self-surgery when his mother found him. She said that doctors amputated his hand the next day. The day after that, wearing a “bandage just dripping with blood” he was back playing American football.

Now the 22-year-old, 100kg defender is the talk of the sport and in line for a call up to the NFL as one of the best prospects in his age group.

He was invited to perform in front of NFL coaches in Indianapolis last weekend at an annual televised camp at which the elite contenders to join the professional game are put through their paces in a series of disciplines in front of officials from all the big teams.

He proceeded to obliterate the competition. In the bench press he strapped on a prosthetic device to enable him to grip the bar. The load was set at 102kg - roughly his own body weight. Sage observers thought he might manage five repetitons. His personal record was 11. He did 20.

Then he tackled the 40-yard dash. Griffin is predominantly a linebacker, the position played by some of the largest men on the field, but he notched a time of 4.38 seconds - a time only five players, all at least a stone lighter, beat.

It was the best time by a linebacker since 2003 and faster than that managed by some of the most acclaimed quick men in the professional game when they took the test.

One of them, Richard Sherman of the Seattle Seahawks, tweeted that if Griffin “doesn’t get drafted in the first two days the system is broken”.

The NFL draft will be held next month.

After his amazing #NFLCombine performance, @Shaquemgriffin should be drafted by the ___________________. pic.twitter.com/TEhSjpT7fe

— The Checkdown (@thecheckdown) March 4, 2018

Jason Gay, a sports columnist for The Wall Street Journal, wrote: “Shaquem Griffin is already my favourite NFL player.”

Griffin’s late invitation to the event, known as the NFL Scouting Combine, was far from the first time in his career that he has felt like an afterthought.

As an eight-year-old he was almost prevented from playing in a crucial game because the opposing team’s coach thought that one-handed players did not belong in the sport.

It was “the first time I ever had to deal with somebody telling me I shouldn’t - or couldn’t - do something because of my hand. Like I was defective or something. Like I didn’t belong,” Griffin wrote in an emotional letter to NFL general managers this month.

He went on to make the decisive intervention of the game - catching an interception for the first time in his life.

At the University of Central Florida he was in his twin brother’s shadow and hardly played for his first two years. Shaquill now plays for the Seattle Seahawks. Griffin recovered to be ranked defensive player of the year in his team’s league two years ago. Then last season he was a linchpin of the side as they recorded the only unbeaten season among major university teams during that year.

“There will be a lot more doubters, saying what I can’t do,” Griffin said after his combine performance. “I think I’m ready to prove them wrong.”

The Times