What Shaquem Griffin is most thankful for in his uneven rookie season for Seahawks
They were in Denver, wearing their No. 26 and No. 49 Seahawks game jerseys with the same last name on the back.
They were there in Chicago. At CenturyLink Field. In Arizona. Los Angeles. And they were in London.
And on Sunday, they will be in Charlotte, N.C., too.
Tangie and Terry Griffin have been there for each and every game this season to watch their Seahawks, Shaquill and Shaquem, the first twins to start as teammates in an NFL regular-season game in 90 years. This weekend they will be at Seattle’s closest game this season to the family’s home in St. Petersburg, Fla., to watch the Griffins and their Seahawks (5-5) play at the Panthers (6-4) in a key game in the NFC’s race to the playoffs.
The Griffin brothers are going to have about 40 family members there in Charlotte on Sunday, relatives who are driving and flying up from the Tampa Bay area.
But it’s Mom and Dad that Shaquem are most thankful for this Thanksgiving week.
They have been the rocks for him during an eventful rookie year. They’ve reassured and stabilized him as he’s gone from first-game rookie starter to being out of Seattle’s defense even more quickly than he entered it.
“It’s been a crazy year,” he said with a chuckle Tuesday, sitting at his locker before practice.
“I’m just thankful for my family. They have a lot of people who go through transitions, going from living one type of life to another. I think my family does a really good job of making sure they stay supportive. They aren’t the family that is asking for this, asking for that. They are very supportive. When it comes to us playing ball and them to traveling to each and every game, they do a lot for us.
“I’m really thankful to have them, to have the supportive family that we do have.”
Defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. sees growth — and happiness — in all the changes and learning Shaquem’s had the last six, whirlwind months.
“It’s fun to watch him start from the moment he got off the plane (in early May) and came here to seeing his growth now at this point in the season,” Norton said. “Again, he’s another guy that’s able to express himself. He’s talking a lot more. He’s smiling a lot more. His confidence is at a high level. You can talk just basic football with him now.
“He’s a core member of the special teams so watching him just really run down and do the things that the special teams guys run and hit and just enjoy ball. We like guys who are really gym rats and love ball and Griff is one of those guys. He’s fitting in really well.
“It was one thing to learn it fast,” said Norton, a former Super Bowl-winning linebacker with the Cowboys and 49ers in the 1990s. “There’s another thing to learning it a little bit slower and not having the pressure on you.
“But he’s a really good addition to the group.”
Shaquem’s 2018 began with Griffin starring at linebacker for Central Florida in its win over Auburn in the Peach Bowl on New Year’s Day. A couple months later, the defensive MVP of his American Athletic Conference wowed the NFL and the world with what he did at the league’s annual scouting combine. Using a special prosthetic attached to his left arm to replace the hand he had amputated when he was 4 years old because of amniotic band syndrome, Shaquem Griffin did 20 repetitions of 225 pounds in the bench-press testing.
In late April the Seahawks not only drafted him, they reunited him with his twin brother. Shaquill was Seattle’s starting cornerback as a rookie last year, while Shaquem finished his redshirt-senior season at UCF.
Now they are teammates again, just as they’ve been since kids. They are roommates again, just as they’ve been since birth in July 1995.
People were crying inside Seahawks headquarters in the moments after the team made its selection of Griffin in the fifth round.
“Everything we prayed for,” Shaquem said.
Shaquem spent his spring and summer moving in with his older brother (by one minute), taking over too much of their suburban Seattle place’s space, Shaquill complained. They got a dog, a big-bellied, Blue Frenchy puppy they named Tank. On the field, Shaquem impressed the Seahawks with his speed. Off it, he wowed them with how he handled the international attention at entering the league for a cause bigger than himself.
He started preseason games. He starred in the first one then regressed in the second, trying to do too much and straying from his defensive assignments. In the third exhibition game, he improved.
Following Seattle’s fourth and final preseason game, at CenturyLink Field against Oakland on Aug. 30, he hosted different-limbed athletes from across the Pacific Northwest.
The following week, Shaquem and Shaquill made more history. With their parents cheering for them from the lower stands at Mile High Stadium they started the Seahawks’ season opener Sept. 9 at Denver. Shaquill replaced departed All-Pro Richard Sherman as Seattle’s left cornerback, opposite the side on which he started as a rookie last season. Shaquem started at weakside linebacker because Pro Bowl veteran K.J. Wright was recovering from knee surgery.
The last twins to start as teammates in the NFL were Earl and Myrl Goodwin, on offense with the 1928 Pottsville Maroons.
“It doesn’t matter if you have one hand, two hands, three hands, 40 hands,” Shaquem said as he started his incredible journey into the NFL. “The only person who can stop you is yourself.”
But he struggled in his debut in Denver. He overran plays. He missed his run-gap assignments. He was overanxious trying to make all the plays and prove himself to coaches and teammates. By the second quarter, the Seahawks replaced him on run downs with second-string middle linebacker Austin Calitro.
Days later, the Seahawks signed veteran Mychal Kendricks as a free agent to play weakside linebacker. Kendricks, not Griffin, started there in week two at Chicago. Griffin hasn’t started since.
Even when the NFL suspended Kendricks indefinitely for insider trading last month, even while Wright missed the first six games, Griffin stayed benched from the defense. Calitro has also started, while Griffin has played almost exclusively on special teams, except for a couple plays he was a backup linebacker in the 27-3 win over Oakland in London Oct. 14.
Griffin is tied for second on the Seahawks with five tackles on special teams. He’s played all 10 games covering kickoffs and punts.
Wright returned for the win at Detroit Oct. 28 and started the next two, though now he’s out indefinitely again trying to get that repaired knee better for the longer term.
Kendricks has returned from suspension to begin practicing. The league’s suspension says he can play again beginning with the home game against Minnesota Dec. 10.
Barkevious Mingo has also played some at weakside linebacker. Calitro was there last week against Green Bay when Wright could not play.
But not Griffin.
“Shaquem keeps... he’s banging, trying to get in there, too,” Carroll said. “But that’s the way we’ve decided to go.”
Asked how his rookie season has gone for him since that extraordinarily quick splash of starting his first NFL game, Griffin said: “Up and downs, like for anybody. But mine kind of started at the beginning of the season.
“Obviously, me getting adjusted to the speed of things and how everything works. But now I talk to the coaches about how far I’ve come since then. I feel more comfortable here now. I feel good now, opposed to when I first got here everything moved so fast. You get hit with a lot in such a short time. Just adjusting is tough. But as you go through each game you start to adjust and get comfortable with how everything is being read. You start to get a routine.
“I feel great now, opposed to when I first started.”
He said he was disappointed in going from starting to bench one quarter into his rookie season. But then he took on an immediate, second challenge: his response to that.
His twin brother is proud of how Shaquem has handled it.
“Like a pro,” Shaquill said.
“Some people go through that situation and just fall off, to the point where they feel like their role doesn’t matter anymore. I like that he hasn’t been like that. Everything, he took it like a pro. He’s carried himself like a pro. Whatever spot he’s been put in, whatever role they’ve needed him to play, he’s played it to the best of his abilities. Right now, it’s special teams.”
“Obviously, you are not going to be happy with starting then not starting,” Shaqeum Griffin said. “But it’s all about how you handled it as a player. At the end of the day I can’t be selfish: ‘Oh, I’m going to act this way because I am not starting.’ It’s never like that. It’s all about waiting for your opportunity until you get your turn to play.
“I’m grateful that, even though I wasn’t starting at linebacker anymore, they gave me the opportunity to be part of the special teams and asked to contribute and play a part in that. And as I go through the weeks doing that and progressing, me making plays and making tackles on special teams solidified myself as a person who is not going to allow if something is not going right to dictate whether I am a good teammate.
“It’s always good when I can get that message to the coaches. But each week, every day, it gets better. I get better.”
Meanwhile, kids like him from across the country couldn’t care less Griffin doesn’t start on defense.
They’ve been getting Shaquem’s No. 49 Seahawks jersey because they, too, have one hand. Kids such as Daniel Carrillo, a grade-schooler and youth football player in Northern California who got a Shaquem Seahawks jersey for his birthday last month.
When Shaquem’s mother showed her son the video moments after the Seahawks’ win over Oakland in London of Daniel and his reaction to getting his jersey, Shaquem started crying. Right there in Wembley Stadium.
The Griffins have been planning to get Daniel and his family up to CenturyLink Field for the Seahawks’ home game Dec. 2 against San Francisco.
If the Carrillos are there, they can meet the Griffins’ mom and dad. Because they definitely will be there to see their twins play for Seattle. Again.
“They keep everything the same (for us). They handle everything well,” Shaquem said.
“It’s my nephew. He’s the one I’ve got to watch out for. Just a 6-year-old, living the limelight. He thinks that everything is perfect. My niece, she is OK, though. She’s 9. She’s not too bad. It’s my nephew.”
Seems little Andre, whom the family calls “Duke,” is taking all the attention at games on his famous uncles to heart.
“He’ll tell you, ‘Ah, no pictures. Keep goin.’ I was like, ‘Man, nobody wants your picture!’
“He’s been like that ever since he was 2.”
This story was originally published November 20, 2018 at 6:24 PM.
