By Lenny Vanglider
FOXSportsSouthwest.com
Dec. 24, 2010
METAIRIE, La. -- In just 15 months, Jimmy Graham has gone from playing his first football game in eight years to becoming one of the top targets for one of the NFL's most potent offenses.
As improbable as it sounds, Graham's road to becoming a rookie tight end for the New Orleans Saints is hardly the toughest challenge he's faced in his 24 years.
Graham's formative years were filled with challenges. He was born into an interracial family where racism was prevalent, was placed in a group home by his mother at age 11, and had failing grades in the spring of his freshman year in high school.
He would meet a counselor named Rebecca Vinson, who became his legal guardian. He transferred high schools and became a top 100 recruit in basketball, eventually becoming a four-year starter at power forward for the University of Miami.
Along the way, he caught the attention of Miami president Donna Shalala.
"I remember my junior year," Graham recalled earlier this week, "(Shalala) came up to me and said, 'You know what? You need to be on the football field.' I guess I was fouling so much."
Indeed, Graham would finish his basketball career with more fouls than field goals made.
Shalala, former Hurricanes coach Randy Shannon, tight ends coach Joe Pannunzio and former UM quarterback Bernie Kosar all were instrumental in getting Graham to put on pads as a fifth-year senior, once his basketball eligibility was exhausted.
Playing football for the first time since his freshman year of high school, Graham caught 17 passes for 213 yards and five touchdowns. The former all-F student in high school became an Academic All-Atlantic Coast Conference selection. He later graduated from UM's business school with a double major. After a single season, Graham got an invite to the Senior Bowl and impressed enough in workouts that he was selected in the third round of April's NFL Draft by the Saints.
Suddenly, Graham was poised to follow in the footsteps of basketball power forward-turned-tight ends like Tony Gonzalez -- who will be on the opposite sideline Monday night when the Saints meet the Atlanta Falcons -- and Antonio Gates, who was catching passes from Drew Brees as a rookie with the San Diego Chargers.
"Definitely, they kind of led the way for me and made this process a lot easier for me," Graham said. "I owe a lot to them."
Since arriving in New Orleans, Graham has developed a bond with another former Hurricanes tight end, teammate Jeremy Shockey.
"He teaches me everything," Graham said. "I think he's my biggest mentor.
"Every time I make a play in practice or in the game, he's the first one in my ear, either chewing me out or encouraging me. He tells me so many things, it's hard to listen to it all because he has so much information for me."
"He treats me like his younger brother. He picks on me a little bit, but it's tough love."
Said Shockey: "It's a great asset to have on your team when you're that tall, you can jump and you've got natural hands. He's coming along well. I know he wants to get better in certain areas."
This season, Graham has 25 receptions for 315 yards and three touchdowns
