He who laughs last
We already know the story. Graham was a scholarship basketball player at the University of Miami for four years before he made the jump into football. What none of us knew was why.
“My college basketball coach is the main reason I left college basketball,” he said. “It’s not because of my love and it’s not because of my talent, it’s because of how he was toward me”
Graham and his coach, Frank Haith, didn’t mesh. Graham became a back-to-the-basket post player who was discouraged from his above-the-rim instincts, he said. The style was a poor fit, Graham sensed a lack of reciprocal respect and the relationship strained beyond repair.
“I went to his office and I told him, I think I might play football,” Graham said. “And he starts chuckling in my face and he says, ‘Jimmy, can you even catch?’ And then the next thing that comes out of this guy’s mouth is, ‘Do you know that football is a man’s sport? Grown men play that sport.’ He said, ‘You’re going to go out there and embarrass yourself.’
“This is a guy that came to my trailer when I was in high school, in the middle-of-the-country ‘hood, with no money and no heat, and he saw where I came from so he knew who I was. He was (still) one of many people who doubted what I would do.”
Today, his detractors fade into the background. “My possibly going into the Ring of Honor…the fact that people care about that, the fact that it matters, says enough. I showed that if you give me an opportunity and you believe in me, I can set any goal and accomplish it. It’s less about me and it’s more about all those people that I proved wrong and all those people that I validated for taking a chance on some red-headed, mixed kid.”
But he’s not totally satisfied. Meat was left on the bone, and even in retirement, it weighs on Graham.
“I’m the type of individual, if I try something, I don’t half-ass it,” he said. “I think I’ve shown that with many things I’ve done in my life. If I’m in, I’m all in.”
With big commitment comes big dreams. And with big dreams comes a different kind of reckoning.
“There’s a lot of people in my life that say I should celebrate what I did while I played, and I should be proud of those things. And I did at times. But for me, my career is something that’s very difficult to think about because of the goals I set for myself.
Making it to the NFL was only meant to be the beginning. “I think a lot of people get a situation, maybe they make the team and they’re happy. I wasn’t happy with that; that was just the beginning. I think, for myself, that was expected. It was like, ‘Well, you put in the work so you’re here. Let’s get to work.’ Let’s prove and let’s be this and let’s go to Pro Bowls and let’s score touchdowns, let’s win games.”
Graham did all of that, and then some (he went to five Pro Bowls, in fact. Three of them as a Saint). But it’s hard for him to shake what he feels was left unfinished. “I fell short because, one, I never played in a Super Bowl, and I will forever live with that. And then, two, after my first year of starting, my new goal was to be the greatest to ever live. When you fall short and you’re not No. 1 in touchdowns, No. 1 in catches, No. 1 in yards and you have no rings to show for your work, it’s very disappointing at times when I really think about it.”
