Inside Brandon Graham's final, turbulent, triumphant season as an Eagle

Philadelphia Eagles legend Brandon Graham began crafting his retirement speech at the beginning of the 2024 season.

The defensive end declared publicly during the summer that his 15th year in the NFL would be his last -- a decision that allowed for some reflection as he went through the season's stages for a final time in uniform.

According to his wife, Carlyne, Graham began writing bullet points on a piece of paper and slowly added to it as the weeks went on. As the longest tenured Eagle of all time and the author of the most impactful play in team history -- the strip sack of Tom Brady that secured Philadelphia's first Lombardi Trophy in February 2018 -- there was a lot of ground to cover.

He went from first-round pick in 2010 to being labeled a bust after a slow start to what would become one of the most consequential careers in Philly sports history. He started off a bachelor and spent nights gaming or at the casino and wound up married to his best friend from high school -- a partnership that gave him two loving children in 9-year old daughter Emerson and 6-year-old son Bryson, and a packed calendar full of daily responsibilities on top of his career demands.

He started off at odds with the city and went on to show he would sacrifice for it.

Much like Graham's career, this season was full of twists. He put his speechwriting on hold when he tore his triceps in late November against the Los Angeles Rams, setting his sights on a 2025 return so he could pen a more appropriate ending. In the wake of that setback, he ignited a full-blown controversy by suggesting on-air that there was a rift between longtime friends Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown.

But Graham eventually helped calm that storm and settled into a mentorship role for a defensive front that exceeded expectations and helped fuel a Super Bowl run. Then Graham pulled off the biggest twist of them all, going against Dr. Peter DeLuca, the team's head orthopedic physician's orders to play in the Super Bowl -- a feat that gave him closure and allowed him to deliver his farewell and achieve peace of mind.

ESPN chronicled Graham's final season in the NFL from start to finish.

Sept. 13: Ready for his closeup

Graham has come into the season five pounds under his normal playing weight. The 6-foot-2 defensive end out of Michigan is listed at 265 pounds. The natural thought is this was at the orders of Vic Fangio, who quickly moved to reshape the unit to his vision in Year 1 as defensive coordinator.

But this was a Graham-driven initiative. He wants his final images in uniform to reflect well on him.

"I'm trying to make sure pictures, everything looks good this last year," he said. "You don't want that belly sticking out or them cheeks looking puffy because it seems like you got food in them."

But it's good Graham is in peak physical condition. He played 48% of the snaps in the regular-season win against the Green Bay Packers in Sao Paulo, Brazil, well up from the average of 34% from last season. The signs are clear that Fangio sees this year as much more than a retirement tour for Graham.

"[Fangio] told me I was going to be playing a lot more when we practiced against the Patriots [in August]," Graham said. "He was saying, 'We're about to bump up your reps and get you right, get you ready. I said, 'OK.' I didn't know what that meant. But s--, I know what it means now."

Oct. 6: Family and football

It's a sun-splashed day at a local football field in the Philadelphia suburbs, and the buzz in the bleachers is starting to build as people begin to notice Graham and his family making their way around the track.

It's the Eagles bye week and that affords Graham the opportunity to catch one of Bryson's Sunday flag football games. Graham isn't trying to go incognito -- he's wearing a green Eagles shirt with matching hat and shorts -- and he welcomes the families that inch into his orbit to take a picture with him or offer an encouraging word. He balances those interactions with keeping a close eye on his son as Bryson creates his own gridiron highlights.

Graham's work schedule is demanding: between meetings, practices, games and his side gigs (he hosts a one-hour radio show Monday evenings on 94 WIP and appears in studio at the station for a half-hour every Tuesday). But that doesn't mean he's out of the loop when it comes to daily life on the family front.

The Grahams use a shared calendar that accounts for Brandon's schedule, Carlyne's work as a licensed psychotherapist and the kids' array of activities. Graham's team obligations are coordinated by player resource coordinator Kathy Mair and director of community relations Carly Pennacchia (whom Carlyne refers to as Brandon's work mom and work wife, respectively) and then cross-checked with Carlyne to ensure dad duties aren't overwhelmed by work responsibilities.

"He made it very clear, 'I want to start having kids early because I want them to experience [the football playing] part of my life.' We started having kids maybe a year into our marriage," Carlyne said. "We knew the statistics behind divorce after a lot of the players retire. ... We knew that once you get done being a player, a lot of these players struggle with their identity and their role in the family. So we just made it very clear, like, 'OK, you need to know where the kids need to go. You need to know their schedules.' He's taking them to gymnastics. He's taking them to flag football games. He's at the competitions before games, because a lot of my daughter's competitions are on Sundays early in the morning before he has a game. So he knows and he values being present.

"We're just very intentional about our time and his role, his identity within our family. I don't want him to ever feel like he's not a part of this."

Nov. 12: Success takes hold

"It's cool to see everybody switch their tone now," Graham said, finishing the sentence with his signature cackle and a playful look in his eye.

The Eagles are coming off a 34-6 trouncing of the rival Dallas Cowboys. They've won five straight, erasing much of the panic in the city following a late-season collapse in 2023 and a 2-2 start to 2024.

Not even Graham was spared during that anxious period.

"The Falcons game [a Week 2 loss], people are like, 'You need to get your old ass out of here!' And then they say [after a subsequent win in New Orleans], 'Good ass f---ing game, BG!'"

To this point, Graham's enjoyed good health despite the increased workload. He came out of that physical game against the Saints with some neck soreness but has otherwise held up. He's playing so well, in fact (he's registered seven QB pressures and 1.5 sacks to this point), that he has changed his tune and publicly entertained the idea of extending his career beyond 2024.

"You know what, I'm leaving it open, man. It's more like, just finishing the season and hopefully holding that trophy at the end, and then we'll cross that road when it comes."

Nov. 24: A tear in the dream

Carlyne had just finished a trip to visit family in Michigan, and she and the kids were headed home from the airport when Graham got hurt.

He exited in the fourth quarter of a road game against the Rams after being chipped in the elbow by running back Kyren Williams as he rushed off the left edge.

"Doc is like, 'Hey, man, you tore your triceps,"' Graham said. "So the first thing I say is, 'Can I play through it?' He just shook his head. 'No. You're out for the year.'"

Graham said he was sick at first, but quickly turned to trying to lift his team up. He prayed with some of his teammates, including Hurts, on the sideline -- a sequence Carlyne watched from her phone as she rode in the car.

Carlyne: "I can see the disappointment in his face, and immediately I knew, 'Oh my God, something happened'. Within two minutes of him walking off the field, he called me."

Brandon: "I told her, 'Baby, I'm out. I'm out for the season. Man, it's alright. It's all good.' I had to make sure I let her know that I was cool, because I know how she is about me."

Carlyne: "I had him on Bluetooth, so my kids heard him, and then they started to cry. Like, 'Oh my God, are you OK? Do you have to get another surgery?' (Graham's past surgeries were for a microfracture on his right knee in 2010, a right ankle injury in 2018 and a left Achilles tear in 2021) They didn't care about the season. They cared about him as a person. And I cared about him as a person as well, because I knew what that meant for him."

Graham was still in a state of denial as the team flew home from Los Angeles. He began prodding his injured arm, thinking, "Man, this doesn't even feel crazy." Then he pressed on one specific area -- where he said he could feel a hole where the tear was present -- and experienced a burst of pain. "And I said, 'Yes it do.'"

Nov. 28: Switching gears

Thanksgiving fell just four days after the injury and was five days before Brandon was scheduled to have triceps surgery on Dec. 3. But the Grahams continued their tradition of hosting fellow defensive linemen at their house for the holiday. Milton Williams and rookie Jalyx Hunt were among those in attendance.

"He made it very clear to them; he wasn't possessive over the team. He understood his role. He understood that these guys can do the job, that he did what he needed to do," Carlyne said.

"The last cherry on top was for him to just be that veteran, sound mind and body for the players, to exemplify what it means to be like a leader. He knew he was the old guy. They call him 'The OG' and call him 'Unc.'

"He just knew they were ready. There's no need to sit around and hold their hands. He made it very clear, 'This is your team.'"

Graham shifted into the role of pseudo-coach.

"If I see something that I know about, I say something and help them like, 'Oh man, this guy, he's leaning. You need to do this.' I'll give them reminders about what we talked about in practice or talked about in meetings," he said.

"I'm watching people. I'm trying to help them."

Dec. 9: Good intentions gone bad

The role of guiding force hit the rocks when Graham suggested on his radio show that the relationship between Hurts and Brown was strained.

"They were friends before this, but things have changed, and I understand that because life happens," he said. "But it's the business side, that we have to make sure the personal doesn't get in the way of the business."

That set off a media firestorm locally and nationally and seemed to threaten the stability of a team that had recently found firmer footing.

Graham told ESPN that night he "made a mistake" and "assumed that it was something it wasn't." But there was more work to do.

The next time the players were in the building, Graham spoke individually to Hurts and Brown in the locker room to offer a personal apology. He said he wasn't "trying to put nobody out there like that," And while he wasn't "gonna take back what I said," he acknowledged he could have "gone about it so different."

Hurts and Brown forgave him, Graham said, though he believed Brown was "probably mad about it" initially and it took some time before Graham and Brown fully moved past the dustup.

"We always were able to speak to each other and all that stuff. But it's just one of those things where it takes time, it definitely takes time," Graham said. "I just know that we won a Super Bowl together, man, so everything should be ... it didn't go in vain."

Before the team meeting that week, Graham took the floor and offered a mea culpa to all of the coaches and players in attendance.

"Everybody just kind of got into the team meeting," Graham said, "and then we didn't talk about it no more."

Jan. 26: The return of BG

Calmer water surrounded Philadelphia down the stretch as it won 12 of its last 13 regular-season games and then took care of the Packers and Rams in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

It wasn't until the Eagles throttled the Washington Commanders 55-23 in the NFC Championship that Graham let the public know that he had eyes on playing in Super Bowl LIX.

"Them boys scored 55 [the same as his jersey number]. That's what's up. That might be telling me something," he said.

But the wheels had long been in motion.

Immediately after the injury, the focus quickly shifted to tabling the retirement talk and making it back for a 16th season.

"He can't retire on an incomplete year," as Fangio put it.

That was Graham's mindset as he underwent surgery to repair the torn triceps in December. But shortly after the surgery, he broached the subject of a Super Bowl return with the team's coordinator of rehabilitation, Monte Wong.

"He was like, 'I will bet on you, because of who you are and how you work, I think you could do it.' And then I started talking to other people, like [former Eagles defensive lineman Hollis] Thomas. He had [a torn triceps]. I was like, 'You know what? Let's get there then,' Graham said.

"And so that's what it became."

Carlyne: "You must understand that I wasn't on board with him returning. Everybody thought he was crazy. Everyone. Like the doctor, everyone was like, 'What you mean, going to the Super Bowl?' At that time, no one thought we were going to the Super Bowl, you know? But Brandon was like, 'No. This feels like 2017; we're going to the Super Bowl.' So it kind of sped up his recovery.

"Anything that was legal for him to do, he did."

That included stem cell therapy. Acupuncture. Massages.

While he made strides, the timeline was just too tight. Dr. DeLuca made it known his recommendation was for Graham to sit out the Super Bowl and that he would have to sign a waiver releasing him of liability. He was told there was a chance he could retear his triceps.

Carlyne: "I was like, 'I don't know if this is a good idea, because if you injure yourself again, you're gonna have to go through the surgery again.' And no one wants to see their husband laid out, you know? He said, 'Carlyne, I would not mind doing the surgery again. The legs, the ankles, that was the hardest. I wouldn't do that to you. But this arm thing, it's not that bad if I have to get a surgery again.'"

Feb. 9: 'Fairy-tale ending'

Graham played 13 snaps in the Eagles' 40-22 win over the Kansas City Chiefs. He recorded a tackle along with a hurry on Patrick Mahomes, and for the second time in his career, got to see the green and white confetti rain down onto the field.

Carlyne knew as soon as she saw Brandon on the field postgame that he had retorn his triceps. (Graham does not know when in the game he retore his triceps.)

Her friends and family at home that saw her on television told her to focus and enjoy the moment, but she was busy worrying and texting his physical therapist and his doctor.

"I can see it and it looked exactly how it looked when he [tore it] the first time, but he didn't even care," she said. "He's like, 'It is what it is. We'll deal with it when we need to deal with it. Right now, we won the Super Bowl. I got to play in it. I got to play a few snaps. All that matters is I got this moment.' He didn't even really care.

"I'm like, 'Man, you really put your body on the line for this city.' He really, really loves Philly. We don't call you guys fans. We call you guys family because that's what it feels like here. They love him and he loves him back."

Graham had long prayed for an ending to his career like this one. But he's played football for the past 30 years or so; leaving it behind can be scary.

It wasn't until his exit meeting with general manager Howie Roseman a week before the start of free agency that Graham knew for sure that he would be stepping away from the game.

"Howie said, 'Man, this is such a fairy-tale ending for you. But I'm going to let you decide on what you want to do.' I was like, 'Man, you know what? It's over. ... My prayer was pretty much said to me in a way to go ahead and retire.'"

When Brandon and Carlyne first told Emerson and Bryson about Graham's decision to retire, they had two distinct reactions.

"When we explained to [Emerson] he was retiring, she was like, 'Oh, OK, that means I can have him all to myself.' And I was like, 'Well, not really, but you know, to a certain extent,'" Carlyne said.

"In my son's thought process, his was like, 'Oh, does that mean that I can be a football player when I grow up? Because he's not going to be a football player anymore?'"

The children cried when the retirement became official, Graham said, because they enjoyed watching him play and were fearful that meant the end of them attending Eagles games.

"But then, they became more excited because I get to do a lot more with them now," Graham said. "I told them, 'We ain't going nowhere. We're going to figure out how we're going to go to the games and all that stuff together.'"