One-Handed Player Shatters Stereotypes at NFL Combine

By Aaron Earls

Shaquem Griffin stood out among the 336 players invited to the NFL combine for what he had and what he didn’t have.

Everyone wanted to achieve their professional football dreams, but Griffin garnered attention because he ran the fastest 40-yard dash ever for his position at the NFL combine and because he only has one hand.

With a 4.38-second 40-yard dash time, Griffin became the first linebacker to ever run below 4.40 at the combine.

List of every defensive player at the NFL combine to weigh at least 225 lbs and run a sub 4.4 40 (since at least 2000):

Shaquem Griffin
/end list

Griffin is 227 lbs & ran an unofficial 4.38 in the 40.

— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) March 4, 2018

During his junior and senior seasons with the University of Central Florida, he recorded 101 solo tackles, 33.5 tackles for loss, 18.5 sacks, two interceptions, and four forced fumbles.

He was named the 2016 American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year and led his team to an undefeated season in 2017—all without a left hand that was amputated at the age of four due to a rare birth condition.

What a moment in our Combine coverage today — @Shaquemgriffin putting up 20 reps of 225 with a prosthetic left hand. Inspiring, emotional, wonderful. pic.twitter.com/InLBEFQwS4

— Rich Eisen (@richeisen) March 3, 2018

In a piece at The Players’ Tribune titled ‘A Letter to NFL GMs,’ Griffin shared his story and directed it to general managers who are considering whether to take a risk on him as an NFL player.

He wrote:

I’ve had people doubt me my whole life, and I know that there are a lot of kids out there with various deformities or birth defects or whatever labels people want to put on them, and they’re going to be doubted, too. And I’m convinced that God has put me on this earth for a reason, and that reason is to show people that it doesn’t matter what anybody else says, because people are going to doubt you regardless. That’s a fact of life for everybody, but especially for those with birth defects or other so-called disabilities.

The important thing is that you don’t doubt yourself.

I feel like all the boys and girls out there with birth defects … we have our own little nation, and we’ve got to support each other, because everybody in this world deserves to show what they can do without anybody telling them they can’t.

AARON EARLS (@WardrobeDoor) is online editor of Facts & Trends.