SI

Eagles Great Brandon Graham Leaves Door Open for NFL Return After March Retirement

The Philadelphia lifer might not be done just yet.

Patrick Andres

Brandon Graham walks off the field after a 2023 win over the Giants.
Brandon Graham walks off the field after a 2023 win over the Giants. / Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
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Defensive end Brandon Graham gave the Philadelphia Eagles 15 years of services, and was handsomely rewarded with a Super Bowl championship in his final season.

Or so fans thought. On Wednesday, Graham seemed to imply to host Kay Adams of Up & Adams that he was leaving the door open a crack for a comeback.

"I'm 90% retired," Graham told a chuckling Adams. "I'm 90%."

Graham ostensibly retired from the Eagles on March 18, walking away from a solid career that saw him win two titles and make a Pro Bowl in 2020.

"The 10(%) is how much I wanna continue training the way I'm training," Graham said. "Training to train for a game is different, but I haven't really changed that yet. I just wanna go out there and speed it up to where wanna I look good and make sure that I'm staying fit."

Graham, who re-tore his triceps during Philadelphia's 40–22 win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX, notably spoke about his retirement in the future tense despite having announced his exit from the game.

"(I'm) making sure that when I do retire I'm staying in the habit of that—a lot of guys tell me that when you leave, you gotta make sure you stay in the habit of working out," Graham said.

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Patrick Andres
PATRICK ANDRES

Patrick Andres is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He joined SI in December 2022, having worked for The Blade, Athlon Sports, Fear the Sword and Diamond Digest. Andres has covered everything from zero-attendance Big Ten basketball to a seven-overtime college football game. He is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism with a double major in history .

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