Playing division one college football is hard enough, but doing so with one hand must be a whole different story.  Shaquem Griffin seems to be doing so at the University of Central Florida, and he is a few weeks away from finally realizing his NFL dream.

When Griffin was in his mother’s womb with his twin brother Shaquill, an amniotic sac wrapped around his wrist thus restricting his fingers and hand from developing properly.  Normally doctors could usually perform a pre-natal surgery to fix this problem, but were unable due to the fact. At four years old, Griffin’s parents found him trying to amputate the fingers himself in an attempt to relieve the pain.  His parents then decided to schedule an amputation of the whole left hand the very next day.

“When I had heard about how he was trying to amputate his own fingers I was surprised thinking about just how much pain he had to be in to want to do that,” sophomore Christian Kiner said.

Shaquem and Shaquill were both highly recruited out of high school, but some would say Shaquill got more looks.  People doubted Shaquem’s ability well, he had just one hand. Shaquill was determined however to not accept an offer from any school unless they recruited both him and his brother.  They chose Central Florida. After playing three season for the Knights, Shaquill left UCF for the NFL draft and became a third round pick for the Seattle Seahawks leaving Shaquem at the college by himself for his fourth season.  In that fourth season, Shaquem helped lead the Knights undefeated season and a Peach Bowl game win over Auburn.

“It’s really cool how his brother would only play for a school if they recruited Shaquem too,” freshman Wyatt Lawless said.

Now, Shaquem is getting his own shot at the NFL.  He attended the NFL Draft Combine and opened many eyes with his performances.  With a prosthetic on one hand, Griffin threw up 20 reps of bench press at 225 pounds and ran the fastest 40-yard dash by a linebacker in combine history.  He ran the exact same time for the forty as his twin brother who is roughly 30 pounds lighter. After that performance, many current NFL stars took to social media to show how impressed they were.

“I was definitely very impressed with Griffin’s performance at the combine.  It was unbelievable to watch the bench press,” freshman Christian Bragga said.

As draft day nears, Shaquem Griffin is just one of the many players with a shot at being drafted.  This just comes to show that any man with one hand has a fighting chance at their dreams.

*Facts regarding Shaquem Griffin from: www.si.com