UCF outside linebacker Shaquem Griffin is one of the best defenders in college football. He also has one hand, because he was born with amniotic band syndrome.
Anyone who’s ever doubted UCF’s Shaquem Griffin should just watch this play
The reigning AAC Defensive Player of the Year has one hand. He’s really good. Full stop.
Griffin is better with one hand than the vast majority of linebackers are with two. The latest example: Him using his left arm, where he doesn’t have a hand, to wrench a fumble recovery away from a Memphis player in Saturday’s AAC title game.
Griffin is an elite athlete and has excellent strength. He was the AAC’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2016 and was in the running for the honor again this year. (Houston defensive tackle Ed Oliver was the winner.)
Shaquem was 4 years old when doctors amputated his left hand as the result of amniotic band syndrome, a congenital birth defect that occurs in about one in every 1,200 births.
He lived with constant, scorching pain every time his jelly-like fingers and hand touched anything. One night, his mother found Shaquem in the kitchen with a knife attempting to cut his fingers off.
“He was like, ‘It’s hurting me really bad, it hurts, it hurts. Just cut it off, cut it off,’” Tangie said. “I called the doctor the next morning.”
With the doctor’s approval, Shaquem went back to daycare with this brother just 24 hours after surgery. Tangie had her concerns. Would “Quem” be OK? How would other kids respond? How would his teachers respond?
All of her questions were soon answered when she picked her boys up from school. She remembers watching Shaquem barreling toward her with a football cradled in his arm next to his bloody bandage and a flutter of his classmates running behind him.
“Of course that freaked me out,” she said. “He’s looking and showing me the ball and he’s fine. We bandaged him back up and went on from there.”
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