Throwback on Seattle Seahawks tight-end Jimmy Graham in his past days on the court. Check out Jimmy’s skills in his UofM days.
Seahawks Jimmy Graham goes over 5,000 yards in his career with a 27-yard catch.
Watch Jimmy Graham tumble, soar, and maneuver his way through the clouds!
Trailing 24-13 in the fourth quarter of the 2015 opener against the St. Louis Rams, the Seahawks faced 3rd-and-goal from the Rams’ 7-yard-line. St. Louis brought a blitz in the face of Russell Wilson, but the Seattle quarterback beat it with a quick throw to the corner of the end zone for Graham, who hauled it in over a Rams defender for the score. The Seahawks then elected to go for two by handing the ball to Marshawn Lynch, who ran it in the end zone to cut the St. Louis lead to 24-21.
Jimmy Graham didn’t know where he was going. He was relaxed enough to fall asleep alongside his sister as his mother drove them to an unknown location, completely unaware of how much his life was about to change when he woke up. When the car came to a stop and Graham opened his eyes, his surroundings were no longer familiar.
“I woke up and it was a new place with many, many new people who I’d never met, who automatically for some reason didn’t like me,” Graham said.
His mom had dropped her 11-year-old son off at Goldsboro Community Orphanage in North Carolina, and she wouldn’t be back to pick him back up. Graham would spend the next three years at the over-capacity group home, a difficult and sometimes violent experience that shaped him into the man he is today. With his red hair, freckles and a nationality unrecognizable to the other kids living with him, Graham was the subject of constant bullying. Now a three-time Pro Bowler who has caught 51 touchdowns in his five-year career, the new Seattle Seahawks tight end talks about that experience, how it shaped him, and the start of his second career in Seattle.
Years before the touchdowns, record-breaking seasons and accolades, football star Jimmy Graham was just a kid from Goldsboro, N.C. But he wasn’t your average kid, and his childhood was far from ordinary. His path to the pros was paved with hardship, resilience and dogged determination.
At the age of 11, Graham moved into a state-run group home, where he was bullied and beaten up by older kids before a youth counselor adopted him and showed him love for the first time. His grades improved from F’s to A’s, and he earned a basketball scholarship to the University of Miami. He graduated with a double major in marketing and business management and stayed on campus an extra year to take graduate classes and play his one and only season of college football before being drafted by the NFL.
Jimmy Graham gives a powerful speech at the White House about foster care.