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 Ģ������ƵStories      December 12, 2025

By Cam Adams

Amenemhet Ashenafi uncrinkled the packaging his son’s king chess piece came in just before dropping him off at college. He looked at the new family heirloom, turned to his son and started reciting the speech he had in mind when this moment would come.

Instead, emotion washed over him. Visions of his son growing up blurred the father’s thoughts.

There was uncertainty whether Nassor Ashenafi would survive past a week old. His smaller stature was viewed as a weakness on the gridiron, but his heart proved stronger, earning him a spot on the Ģ������Ƶ football team.

Unbeknownst to Nassor and his dad, his mother, Vakisla Milliner, was recording the whole thing, becoming a popular video on TikTok soon after. Tears were jerked and thousands were inspired out of that moment of vulnerability, however, Nassor is stronger than any viral force. 

Nassor is a warrior, tried through the hurdles of doubt that life slung at him, but to Amenemhet, his son is more than that.

He’s a king.

“There was so much going on in that moment. It's such a backstory, because I've seen his life, how he started here and where he is now.” Amenemhet said. “In that moment, it all flashed like that, and I got choked up because no one expected him to be here.”

“The emotion part, it caught me off guard, but I just went with it. It is what it is. I wasn't ashamed. I wasn't embarrassed. It was a moment. It was a moment with my son, with my firstborn.”

King Nas

Amenemhet couldn’t be more proud of his son. Nassor is an accomplished athlete, being a multi-time state champion in track and a ballhawk in the secondary in high school. 

He takes after his pops, with Amenemhet being a former standout athlete himself, but the elder Ashenafi is more interested in the young man he raised than the athlete he coached. He wanted to give Nassor something to remind him to make the right moves, not just on the football field, but in life.

“I wanted to start a tradition,” Amenemhet said. “In a lot of Black families, there's not many family heirlooms that are passed down, that are held sacred, so that's where the chess piece came in.”

In chess, the game isn’t over until a king is captured. Each player must protect their king — the message Amenemhet was trying to send his son.

“Just like in life, right, wrong, whatever, you've got to protect yourself,” Amenemhet said. “Protect the king because that's how I see you, and that's how I expect you to see yourself always and in every situation.

“Whenever you feel boxed in and things ain't going your way, just sit back, take a moment, gather your thoughts and think before you move.”

After their heartfelt exchange, Amenemhet got back in the car with his wife, still drying his eyes when Milliner said, “this is the type of stuff that should go viral.” Amenemhet told her to go ahead and post it, and about a week later, she did.

The next day, Milliner got a call from her daughter.

“She said, 'What did you do?’” Milliner recalled. “It was in the middle of the night when I posted. I said, 'What are you talking about?' She said, 'Y'all just went viral.'”

Milliner’s TikTok video picked up steam quickly, earning hundreds of thousands of views in a matter of days. It was a shock to most everyone around Milliner — except Nassor.

“At first, I didn't know it went viral until somebody had told me and sent it to me,” Nassor said. “When I saw it, I was just like, 'OK, that's cool. That's what's up.’ I was just regular about it.”

Soon, the DMs came flooding in. Men all over the internet expressed their admiration of Amenemhet and his relationship with Nassor. Some said they wished they had a relationship with their father like Nassor has. Others mentioned they hoped to mirror Amenemhet as dads.

Some even called Amenemhet their new TikTok dad or uncle. But that’s nothing new to the father of three and coach of many. He’s used to it. 

“I've been coaching for over 20 years, so it's nothing for me to smother or ingratiate other people's sons with the same energy and love that I provide my two sons,” he said.

“It's a good feeling that I'm just a common citizen, I'm a normal guy, but I'm passionate about a lot of things. Football is one of them, being a maker of men is another and children and family is another.” 

Amidst the tsunami of DMs, Milliner got a one from an account with millions of followers — the Jennifer Hudson Show.

Hudson invited the family out to Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California to tape a segment of the show where Nassor and Amenemhet talked about the king piece and their relationship. The episode aired on Oct. 16 to hundreds of thousands more. 

Nassor and Amenemhet didn't expect this. No one did, but Amenemhet hopes its impact can continue on longer than most viral videos.

“Keep spreading the video. Keep sharing it. Let's not make it just a feel-good moment and then it dies away, because it's something that needs to stay, to me, on the forefront of everybody's minds,” Amenemhet said.

“There's a lot of trends out there that we keep presenting. We keep giving it energy. This is something positive. This is something organic, and we're two real people.” 

Earning his crown

Nassor steps on the turf at Bob Waters Field with a sense of gratitude. There are millions of high school athletes, but very few get the opportunity to compete in Division I — less than 2% each year. Even in his redshirt season, Nassor has made an impact for the Catamounts, garnering three tackles.

“It's a blessing,” Nassor said. “Not everybody can get a scholarship to play D-I football, you know? Some people don't have the ability, so God was able to bless me from the womb and have my future planned out.  

“I'm thankful for it every day. I thank God every day that I'm here playing D-I football.”

But his favor extends beyond the gridiron. Just days old, Nassor’s life was at risk. 

A week after he was born, Nassor went into total kidney failure. His parents eventually took him home, but doctors suspected Nassor would need a kidney transplant by the age of five and was going to need to stay on medication for the rest of his life.

Neither came to fruition.

Instead, Nassor has kept both of his kidneys and was taken off his medications at three years old.

“We had to fight to keep him here,” Milliner said. “We had what we thought was a perfectly healthy baby, and he was not healthy at all.

“To see him just overcome everything, because I've been able to watch that from day one from him in hospital and (Amenemhet) whispering in his ear, and it’s the only thing (that was able) to calm him down. That’s like just a culmination of all this stuff.”

Despite his rough beginnings, Nassor grew to be a very healthy kid. He started trying to walk at six months old, and throughout his childhood, he had very little body fat, leading friends and family to believe that Nassor was on a weightlifting regimen at six years old.

He wasn’t. He was just that strong, and football came to him naturally, too.

“(Amenemhet) bought him a football for his (first) birthday, and I was like, ‘this thing is as big as his head,’” Milliner said. “We took him on the football field, gave it to him, and he just took off running.”

When Nassor was young, it was apparent that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Amenemhet was a standout high school running back in his hometown of Waterbury, Connecticut, and was recruited to play football at D-I University of Colorado, Boulder.

Amenemhet’s grades weren’t up to par, so he played in junior college before he came home to his local community college for a couple semesters. Still garnering attention from D-I schools, his plan was to transfer to one afterwards, but soon after, Amenemhet’s world was shaken.

His father was diagnosed with brain and lung cancer, so instead of moving far away to play D-I football, Amenemhet stayed close to home. He played at Division III Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts, so his dad could attend games.

Amenemhet went on to become a two-time hall of famer at the school as both a football and track athlete. He broke a number of records as a Falcon and is still Fitchburg State’s career leader in rushing yards (3,957), rushing touchdowns (32) and rushing attempts (789).

Now, decades after his college career, Amenemhet is seeing his oldest son achieve the very dream he sought after when he was a kid: playing D-I football. A surprise? Not really. As a king does, Nassor’s made the correct moves.

He’s seen his son’s talent from day one. He’s seen him stay out of trouble. He’s seen the countless hours Nassor put in the weightroom. He’s seen it all, but sometimes, Amenemhet will admit, he is in awe.

“With me sitting here and watching him, I'm astonished. I'm ecstatic,” Amenemhet said. “It's an amazing feeling to see your son accomplish something that me, myself, was so close to accomplishing.

“It wasn't for a lack of ability, because I had that. People back home would tell you, but I'm OK because I did that for my guy, for my hero, for my father.”

Keeping the piece 

Ģ������Ƶsafeties coach Malik Goodman eyes popped at a football camp in Charlotte last year. A five-foot-nine nickelback out of Mallard Creek High School ran a 4.4-second 40-yard dash, and in one-on-ones with receivers, he was locking everyone up.

The Catamounts offered Nassor on the spot, and a week later, he committed. Since he’s stepped on campus, the freshman has been a valuable piece to the team, embodying that king chess piece his father gave him in the summer.

“You just see it through his discipline and everything he does, and even if he's not the best at it, he's going to work to be the best at it,” Goodman said. “That's where I kind of see that king chess piece coming in, he's always working to (figure out) his next move, best move.”

Like any college freshman, Nassor is adjusting to his new life around him. He’s had to go and  register for classes on his own. He’s waking himself up to get to his workouts and early morning classes.

Nassor is doing the little things, but he’s doing them right. The king is making the right moves.

“Just seeing him develop and evolve and continue to evolve as a young man, it's gratifying for me as a father,” Amenemhet said. “It just lets me know my lessons, my teachings are hitting home, and he reassured me this summer when he was up here.

“He's like, 'Trust in everything you taught me.' He said, 'Dad, we’re good. Trust me. We’re good.'”

Nassor is swiftly reminded of his father’s lessons every time he wakes up. That king chess piece that sent TikTok into a frenzy lies just beside his gaming system in his dorm, and he looks at it each time he leaves.

It reminds him of what it took for him to get to Ģ������Ƶand the correct moves he made as he was guided by his father. Now, he’s making them himself for the most part.

Mom and dad are always a call away, but being a few hours apart from them, he’s becoming the man they raised him to be: a survivor, a warrior and above all, a king.

“(It means) a lot, because it was just something that my dad gave me,” Nassor said. “Good or bad times, just look at it and just remember what it means.I've always got to move, either a good one or a bad one, but always make the right move with that piece.”