Northeast High QB Jayden Boyd was shot in September while playing video games. Now he’ll play on Thanksgiving.

Jayden Boyd texted a group of Northeast High School football players from his hospital bed in September.

“I got shot,” he wrote.

Jeremiah Tellus read it and thought the quarterback was playing a joke. A few hours later, Tellus saw his friend on a Zoom call as Boyd told the team what happened.

Some Northeast players were sleeping at an assistant coach’s house in Frankford so they wouldn’t be late to practice on Labor Day morning. They were playing video games when they heard gunfire around 1 a.m. outside on Adams Avenue.

Boyd dropped to the floor of the living room.

“Because, you know, that’s what people do,” Boyd said.

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Police said several shots were fired through the living room window, and one struck the 17-year-old.

“People always say it feels like it’s burning,” Boyd said. “But I just felt like something went in me. I said, ‘I got shot.’”

Police rushed Boyd to Temple University Hospital, where a surgeon removed a bullet that fractured the quarterback’s spine. His football season, they figured, was finished. Doctors said it could have been worse.

“One more inch to the right, and I would’ve been paralyzed,” he said. “I try not to think about that.”

Boyd told his teammates in the morning that everything would be OK and reminded them to focus on their next game. He was recovering from a gunshot wound but was thinking about his team. He’s a true quarterback, his mother said.

Boyd returned to school three weeks later but missed Northeast’s next nine games and could only watch as the Vikings lost to Lincoln in the Public League playoffs.

“He kept saying, ‘I let my team down,’” said his mother, Bahisha Durbin. “I said, ‘You didn’t let anybody down. This is not your fault.’”

But Boyd’s season did not end that night in Frankford. Doctors told him last week that he can play again, clearing the quarterback in time to join his team for its Thanksgiving game against rival Central. On the night he was shot, the teenager underwent surgery to remove the bullet. He never lost the ability to walk. After he recovered, he underwent physical therapy at Children’s Hospital before he was cleared to play. Boyd practiced Monday afternoon, wearing shoulder pads for the first time in more than two months. It was surreal, he said.

And his teammates — guys like Tellus, who prayed that their teammate was still alive until he showed up on that Zoom call — could not believe it.

Boyd made it back for Thanksgiving.

“Thankful,” he said. “Thursday is going to be very emotional. I know we’re going to score when I’m in the game, so I’m probably going to shed a couple tears.”

Durbin signed up her son to play football when he was 7 years old, hoping the sport would help his ADHD.

“It was a godsend,” she said. “It’s helped out so much. I can’t thank the coaches enough.”

Football soon became Boyd’s life. That’s all he cares about, his mother said.

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“I’m, like, a physical person, so I wanted to be a part of that,” Boyd said. “It brought joy to my life.”

Boyd wanted to be a wide receiver like Odell Beckham Jr. but soon fell in love with playing quarterback. He spent his first two high school seasons at Archbishop Carroll before transferring to Northeast.

He leaves his home in South Philly each morning at 6:15 and takes two buses and a subway to get to school.

“He’s a great part of the team,” said Tellus, a running back. “He’s a great friend. He has great loyalty. He always has my back. He’s a great friend to have.”

Boyd dreamed of playing college ball and studying sports medicine. That felt impossible, though, after he was shot. Schools had been in touch with him, but Boyd knew he needed to show more on the field. His junior year was supposed to be his chance to display his talent as a dual-threat quarterback — “I can beat you with my arm and legs,” he said — and earn a college scholarship.

“Football was the last thought on my mind, but he doesn’t care about anything else,” Durbin said. “He was like, ‘Life is over because football is over and I can’t play.’ I said, ‘It’s OK, Jay. It’s not like your grades are messed up and that’s why you can’t play. You can’t play because you got shot.’ He’s just so passionate.”

Boyd was devastated to not play and soon became nervous in his own neighborhood. He spent weeks with a friend in Drexel Hill as the shooting made him afraid of being in Philly. Boyd figured if he couldn’t be safe playing video games, then where could he?

He had nightmares and flashbacks about that night on Adams Avenue and now meets with a therapist. His mother asked him if he wanted to switch schools. Boyd declined.

He wanted to stay at Northeast with coach Nick Lincoln, who was at Temple University Hospital that night and kept Boyd involved with the team while he was sidelined.

“It’s not something you necessarily prepare for when you get into coaching,” Lincoln said. “But being in Philly for about 15 years, I can’t say it’s the first time that something has occurred to my players off the field. It’s always disheartening and surprising. You just try to figure out how you can best support him and his family. We want these kids to use the sport to better themselves, become men in the community, and not become products of an environment.”

Durbin was sleeping when her son called that night.

“Usually, when Jayden is blowing my phone up it’s because he wants something from Wawa,” Durbin said. “I’m like, ‘I’m not giving this boy any more money.’ That’s usually what it is.”

So she didn’t answer. And then her other son ran into her bedroom to tell her what happened.

“I called Jay, and I was yelling at him,” Durbin said. “I hear him, but I don’t. It’s 1 o’clock in the morning, and we don’t play in the streets at 1 o’clock.

“I said, ‘What were you doing outside?’ He said he wasn’t outside. So I said, ‘How did you get shot?’”

Boyd told his mother the story, reminding her that he was sleeping at a coach’s house.

“He was loud but calm,” Durbin said. “That’s what helped me not get hysterical. Because he was calm. He didn’t call me screaming.”

She rushed to the hospital, fearful that her son would never walk again, and then was relieved to see he was OK. Durbin worried about the teammates who were there that night.

“I felt bad for the kids who had to watch and see it,” Durbin said. “These are good kids. They’re not in the hood doing crazy stuff. All these kids know is football. The one kid was shaking so bad because the coach was telling him to apply pressure on [Boyd’s] back. He was scared.”

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Earlier this month, police arrested Nasir Johnson, 26, and charged him with aggravated assault, a firearms charge, and related offenses. Police said they had obtained surveillance footage of someone wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt firing a gun on 4200 block of Griscom Street in the direction of the 1500 block of Adams Avenue, where Boyd was playing video games. Police said they recovered several items — including clothing that was consistent with what the suspect was wearing in the surveillance footage — when they arrested Johnson.

Lincoln called Boyd’s mother last week to say he wanted the quarterback to play a few snaps on Thanksgiving, just enough to give him a taste of being back on the field before next season. The series against Central, which dates to 1892, is said to be the nation’s oldest rivalry among public schools.

Boyd wasn’t able to show college coaches his promise this fall, but he still has another season of high school ball to prove himself. He can’t wait.

“We’re going to do something crazy next year,” he said.

His mother agreed to let him play Thursday but told the offensive line to “protect my baby.” She gave her son Psalms to recite before he takes the field, and she’ll be in the stands with an entire section of family and friends. Nearly three months after being shot, Boyd will be back on the field for one last game. His season is not finished.

“We’re just grateful,” Durbin said. “I’m grateful that he’s here. It’s Thanksgiving, for sure.”