UCF LB Shaquem Griffin earns invitation to 2018 NFL Scouting Combine

UCF linebacker Shaquem Griffin, who has inspired the college football world while playing football with only one hand, is one step closer to his NFL dream. On Tuesday, Griffin, who racked up 195 total tackles during his Knights career, received an invite to the 2018 Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. Griffin was pretty excited hearing the news:

Griffin lost his left hand when he was a child, but it hasn’t slowed him down. Here’s a brief background on Griffin’s story, from the Orlando Sentinel:

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.”

Griffin participated in last Saturday’s Senior Bowl, and he was named the Practice Player of the Week in Mobile leading up to the game. In 2016, he was named the AAC Defensive Player of the Year after accounting for 92 total tackles.

There were multiple NFL teams who were impressed with Griffin last week, including the Cincinnati Bengals:

Specifically, Jim Haslett talked with Geoff Hobson of the Bengals’ official site about Griffin.

“It didn’t hinder his play whatsoever,” said Haslett. “I couldn’t tell. The most impressive thing to me yesterday was he was getting off blocks, how he used his arms and body to get off blocks. You can tell he’s a fighter. He was fighting to get off blocks. He did a nice job. He was right there playing the SAM (linebacker) right on the line of scrimmage.”

Griffin making big plays isn’t uncommon — he was named the defensive MVP during UCF’s Peach Bowl victory over Auburn, and he forced a fumble during the Knights’ AAC title game against Memphis:

Here’s Mocking The Draft’s Dan Kadar’s take on where Griffin could end up:

Going down to the Senior Bowl last week was the best thing that could have happened to Griffin. It obviously let him show off a big personality in meetings with NFL teams. More importantly, he was able to line up at multiple positions, besides just rush end. In that role, he would have some trouble getting off blocks in the NFL. But at the Senior Bowl he lined up at safety and a more traditional linebacker role and reportedly played well. Ultimately, I think he should be an early Day 3 pick in the draft and has a future as a dime or nickel package player and special teams ace.

Congrats on the invite Shaquem, you deserve it.