Kim Hassell has to take a break to fight tears, because the memory of her son’s words that day are words that the mother can never forget when her heart is broken as it was, even 20 years later.
The boy was in kindergarten when he hit him and hit him terribly, that no one else had a left hand that looked like his own, a tiny hand deformed at birth, only with the appearance of a rose and a thumb, maybe an inch in size , middle of the hand bent. And he returned to his mother in Titusville, Florida, home that day and asked:
“Why didn’t God make me like my friends? Why didn’t God make me like the rest of the kids in my class? If I just die, then I can be born again, then I can be like everyone else. “
The boy remembers. Of course yes.
“Just being with other kids and seeing them happy all the time and then being able to do things every day with both hands, I didn’t understand why I was different,” JT Hassell told The Post after the Jets practice on Wednesday. “I started to hate myself in a way and I hate the way I was born.”
On this Christmas day, Hassell can look back on a remarkable journey that took him, one way or another, to Jete. They somehow became the Jets 1-13 the day he debuted with the team and blocked a point that set up a field goal in Rams’ 23-20 upset, except for a miracle, he will send Trevor Lawrence to jaguars.
Hassell can look in the mirror now and see an inspiration not only for his mother, but also for all those with disabilities, for all those forced to bear the slings and raw arrows of the aggressors with small minds, for all those who have lost a friend armed violence, for all those who grew up fighting in a house with a single mother, for all those who are looking for a father figure, for all those who refuse not to accept an answer and can write a story about the triumph of the spirit human.
He can smile through the ups and downs of a poor NFL life and career that he dreamed of as a boy, now believing that God never hated him, but always loved him.
“For me to be on the phone with you right now, everything is God,” Hassell said. “I do not know how I do it sometimes. I’m the kind of person I need to find. Sometimes there may not be a path for me or there may not be an opportunity for me for some reason, but I just have to go and make a journey. “
A way to make appliances with gloves sewn by his mother. A way to lift weights on Pro’s Day. A way to go from South Dakota to Florida Tech, to be a raw free agent, to play four games safely and in special teams with the Browns 2019, to the Patriots training team for a few days, to Jets.
“I’m grateful for all the things I’m going through, because it allows me to help others,” Hassell said. “Many people come to me for help and motivation and just want to tell me about themselves, because they know I’ve been through it all. They only see a smile on my face every day, no matter what I go through. For them to see the strength, courage and passion that I have every day of my life, no matter what I go through, is someone you want to have and someone who motivates you to lead a happy life. “
It is said that sometimes a village is needed.
“Teachers wouldn’t let people make fun of him,” Kim Hassell said. “They would not allow him to be treated differently.”
She worked three jobs to try to get there and drove a school bus for the Brevard County School Board for 19 years. He never missed JT’s high school games, first at Titusville HS, then at Astronaut HS, and only missed one game at Florida Tech, an hour’s drive from home, due to an impending hurricane.
“I’m the mother who’s always there,” Kim said. “I would go donate my plasma and save my off-season money on my plasma card, so I could travel to go to his college games.”
She offered to have a prosthesis made for him when he was about 10 years old, but JT refused.
“I want to be the way God made me,” he said.
She is one of the biggest motivators in her life, along with her son Cameron, who turns 7 in February. She and a small family group broke out when he blocked that point against the Rams.
“I got out of my chair and everyone was standing there screaming!” Kim said.
He knew exactly what it meant to him to live this NFL dream.
“Seeing him accomplish a goal he has made in his life is very exciting for me,” Kim said. “He would be the first to train there and the last to go to training. At the weekend, the children sleep – not my son. At six in the morning, “Can you take me to the gym?” “
“Before the game happened,” JT said, “I was literally talking to my colleagues on the sidelines, saying, ‘I can’t believe I’m playing right now playing this game.’ I was literally just at my mom’s house.
“And then I went and locked the deck and it gave me so much joy for myself and my teammates.”
He just wants Johntay Gowdie to share it with him.
“My best friend was shot in the head when I was younger, he was like a close brother to me, I grew up playing football together. I still think about it every day, “JT said.
He is proud of himself today and deserves to be and has finished writing a book about his 25-year life.
“Even out of hand, I’ve been through so much in my life,” Hassell said. “No matter what I go through, I keep going. … I’m more proud than anyone can be. I’m my biggest fan. Not everyone knows the things I’ve been through or how hard it is to get to this point in my life. “
Against any odds, he got there. “Now being here,” said JT Hassell, “it’s really a dream come true.”
A dream Christmas.