Ten-year-old football player doesn't let double amputation slow him down

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Deven Jackson, 10, has loved football for as long as he can remember.

"I loved it because it was my more favourite sport," he told CBS News.

Two years ago, however, Deven contracted bacterial meningitis. His odds of survival were less than 10 per cent.

Remarkably, Deven survived the scary infection, but it cost him his legs. Doctors amputated both legs below the knees.

"Like, it was really scary, like, I didn’t really want to lose my legs," Deven said in an interview on Good Morning America.

While mourning the loss of his legs, Deven refused to give up on football, growing more and more determined to prove to people that he can still play.

"Because they thought I would never like be playing football," Deven told CBS News. “They’d probably say, that kid can’t play football no more, he can’t do nothing. And I showed them up.”

Sure enough, once the 10-year-old football player learned to walk on prosthetic legs — it took him a year — he starting running, thanks to running blades that were donated by someone no longer using them.

"These are light – the others are heavy because they have more metal in them," Deven told PennLive, comparing his two types of prostheses. “These make me run fast. With the other ones I can’t.”

After a summer of running drills with a trainer, Deven is now playing peewee football. He recently scored his first touchdown since losing his legs.

"We’re not aware of another instance like this in youth football. It’s very inspiring," Steve Alic, spokesman for USA Football, the national governing body for youth and high school football, told PennLive.

"I’d venture this is something his teammates will remember for the rest of their lives," Alic added. “It certainly will foster a message of inspiration and real can–do spirit — that there’s no reason to hold yourself back, especially if you see here’s your teammate playing with two prosthetic legs.”

As for Deven, when it comes to dreaming big, playing peewee football is only the beginning.

"I want to go to the NFL," he said. “I want be in the Hall of Fame. That’s what I want to do.”

"He teaches us just not give up," proud mom Michelle Jackson told CBS News. “Like, life might deal you a bad hand but you just got to continue on.”

Even former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow finds the young player inspiring. Tebow featured Deven in his “Motivate Me Monday” segment on Good Morning America last month.