Brandon Graham Announces Retirement After 15 Seasons

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00:00Brandon Graham has announced something.

00:04Yeah, so let's talk about Brandon Graham who announces retirement after 15 seasons. Scott,

00:10and you and I were talking during the break how fans could be brutal on players, right?

00:15So Brandon Graham, it got so bad for him his second year. He started blocking fans like crazy

00:20on Twitter, blocking media members. Because let's not forget, he was the 13th player taken overall

00:26in the 2010 NFL Draft. Right after him, Earl Thomas by the Seahawks. Right after Thomas,

00:33Jason Pierre Paul. So naturally those guys got off to a great start. Brandon Graham did not,

00:40and then he suffered a major knee injury. How about this knee injury? He suffered an ACL injury

00:45and a torn patella tendon on the same knee at the same time, okay? That seems to be impossible,

00:51but our friends at the Sportsmedsbro podcast told us that. And when you look at Graham's career,

00:59it did not look good when Chip Kelly took over as the head coach in 2013. He made him a stand-up

01:06edge rusher. He took to it a little bit, but he really started taking off when Jim Schwartz came

01:11in in 2016, bringing in that wide nine where the ends are out here. He took his career to another

01:16level. And you know what he did in 2017? He had the strip sack against Tom Brady. He became one

01:21of the all-time greats. And it's one of these situations, Scott, you never could see this

01:25because he got off to such a tough start. The immaturity had to grow up a little bit,

01:30and not only did he grow up, he became one of the team leaders. He'll definitely go in their

01:35Hall of Fame for the club, the Eagles Hall of Fame, but he's what we call that one rung below

01:40that almost Hall of Fame player. Just a phenomenal football player. And as you know, Scott, guys don't

01:45play this well this late. He turns 37 in June, and quite frankly, the way that he played the last

01:50two years, he clearly could have played, but he did re-tear his triceps, believe it or not, in the second ball,

01:56which is crazy. But it's really one of the all-time stories, and I'm going to relay one

02:00more to you, which I think is fascinating. So I think in 2011, a veteran Eagles player reached

02:05out to me to tell me about Graham and how he wasn't really doing well and had to grow the blank up,

02:11which means he's got to mature, to say the least, as you know. And it just shows you that

02:16after the two seasons, nobody saw this coming. There were whispers around the club that he was

02:20going to be a bust. That's where he was. And to think, Scott, after 15 years, he's become one of

02:28the most beloved players in Eagles history is just remarkable to me. I remember when we were talking

02:33about him going into the Super Bowl that he was coming back too early from the surgery on his

02:40tricep, and that no one had ever done that in four months. And I said to you, I said,

02:48how do you handle a 300-pounder trying to deal with that with a torn tricep? It's impossible.

02:57So what happens? He goes out in the game that they win his second ring. He re-tears the tricep

03:04and plays the whole game with a torn tricep. I mean, you got to be a badass.

03:10All right. So, Scott, how about this? So our friend, Dr. David Chow, told us, look,

03:14he didn't think it would happen. A lot of people doubted he could play. And by the way,

03:17it was two and a half months, not four. It's just, now he didn't play a ton of snaps,

03:22but here's the thing, Scott, in the snaps, he was phenomenal. It's just one of these things where,

03:27and good that he went out on his own terms, because as you know, Scott, covering this league

03:32for decades, you know this, that typically the league tells you, you're done, we're not going

03:36to sign you. I could tell you that there would be other teams involved if you wanted to come back,

03:40wouldn't just be the Eagles. And it's just what, my career covering 32 teams for 27 years,

03:47being close to that team, it's just one that I never saw coming. Because again,

03:51after two or three years, you're like, this guy's going to be bust. He doesn't have it.

03:55Then to turn it around and take responsibility for his career and to mature, that shows a lot

03:59that we have to give guys a chance.

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