The Super Bowl had just ended about a half hour before I walked off the field at the Superdome. It was still covered in green and white confetti. And as I began to make my way through the tunnel toward the Eagles locker room, I ran into Brandon Graham.

The Eagles’ legend and longest-tenured player had apparently re-torn his triceps during the 40-22 win over the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX but that did nothing to quell his giant, sheepish grin. 

I knew what was coming.

“You believe now!?” Graham barked my way before breaking into his signature laugh.

I never played in the NFL — obviously. But I do know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of Graham’s infamous trash talk. No one is better at it and no one had more fun delivering it during his career than Graham.

A couple weeks earlier, after the NFC Championship Game, a game Graham didn’t even play in, I heard it too. Graham asked me if I believed the Eagles would be going to the Super Bowl when they were 2-2 and I was honest — no way. So there was a bit of a history before he earned his trash-talking moment after the Super Bowl win.

But mid-trash talking after the Super Bowl, Graham saw Eagles player resource coordinator Kathy Mair, who acts almost like a den mother for the players, and asked me to snap a photo of them together and send it to him. After the photo was delivered, Graham went right back into his playful banter before a cart whisked him away to the party in the Eagles’ locker room.

That was the full Brandon Graham experience in about 45 seconds. 

As he officially walks away from the game after 15 seasons in the NFL, all with the Eagles — more than any other player in franchise history — there’s no doubt that BG was 1 of 1.

Getting trash-talked by Graham has been a rite of passage for players facing the Eagles the last 15 years. As Jason Kelce once said, “there is no animosity in Brandon Graham’s trash talking.” And anyone could get it. Teammates, opponents, reporters.

The reporter to get it the most was my former colleague and buddy Derrick Gunn and you probably remember those clips of Graham walking down the tunnel yelling, “Where D-Gunn at?!” during Eagles Postgame Live. Graham always wanted to get in a playful jab at anyone who doubted — even if they didn’t actually doubt him.

But to understand that part of Graham, you probably have to remember how his career in Philly began. The Eagles took Graham in the first round in 2010 and many considered him a bust when his career didn’t start off as hot as Earl Thomas or Jason Pierre-Paul, the two players taken immediately after him. For years, Graham heard those two names constantly and they rattled around in his head. Things were so bad that Graham’s mother, Tasha, wouldn’t even wear her son’s jersey to games early on in his career.

It takes a special kind of person to come out of that. But Graham kept running his own race, fueled by doubters, and eventually became a contributor, then a starter and then eventually a legend.

When Graham finally became a starter during the 2015 season, I sat down with him for a lengthy interview before the Eagles went back to his hometown of Detroit. He shared with me the story of his upbringing and it put everything into perspective. Sure, Graham had to overcome some obstacles in his NFL career, but he was already a success story the minute he entered the NFL.

To get through all that, Graham needed to be optimistic. And he always has been.

I’ll never forget an interview before one season when Graham was talking about his goals and mentioned that his target was to get two sacks per game. That, of course, would be a record-shattering season. But that was Graham’s mindset as an eternal optimist and it was that optimism which allowed him to last in Philly as long as he did.

Every time there was another first-round pick who didn’t quite work out or who got off to a slow start in their career, the Eagles’ locker room would always point to Graham. He has been a shining example for the slow-starters for a decade. Of course, Graham’s personality and drive are unique and so is his story in Philadelphia.

After the 2018 season ended in the playoffs in New Orleans, it really looked like Graham was going to leave as a free agent. At cleanout day, he stood in the hallway outside the locker room at the NovaCare Complex and said individual goodbyes to every single reporter who was there — everyone got a hug or a handshake or a high-five. It was goodbye. And then a few weeks later, he signed a three-year contract to return.

Graham ended up playing six more seasons after that moment. He became the Eagles’ all-time leader in games played and seasons played.

I didn’t cover all of Graham’s career, but I covered most of it. I got to watch him turn himself into a legend on the field and I got to watch him become a devoted father off of it. His teammates came and went and Graham became a leader, a captain and the longest-tenured athlete in the city. He stayed true to himself the whole time. Perhaps the greatest compliment I could give Graham is that his presence was felt every single day.

For 15 years, Graham brought the juice. He brought it to practices, to games, to the locker room. Even at age 36 this past season, Graham had seemingly limitless energy and a team needs that. Even on his worst days, Graham knew his responsibility was to bring it and he did. It’ll be weird that he won’t be around as much next season.

One of Graham’s favorite things to do in recent years was to playfully kick reporters out of the locker room. It’s really the job of the public relations staff but Graham got a kick out of yelling “locker room’s closed!” when it was time for us to leave (and sometimes well before it was time for us to leave).

Graham has said he wants to stick around and be with the team in some capacity after retirement. Hopefully, he can still find the time to kick us out of the locker room or to hit me with a playful jab when he thinks I’m doubting him.

That’s the funny thing about BG’s trash talk. I know I’m gonna miss it.

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