Pandemic Hits Home for Brandon Graham
The coronavirus pandemic is very real to Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham, not just some political football being kicked about.
Graham lost two aunts to COVID-19 and watched another aunt struggle with the virus before finding a way to survive it.
“You know, it just sucked, man,” said Graham this past week on a videoconference call with reporters. “You have to keep pressing, keep going. We understand it’s just a part of life, but it’s just the way things kind of happened. It’s tough for the family right now.”
One of the aunts that died was actually the wife of Graham’s father, but Graham said, “she was like an auntie to me. She was a close friend of the family.
“That was really tough because she went from talking to us every day to no response. Then one day later, she’s gone. It got bad real fast. That’s still tough.”
Despite the losses, Graham seemed to be his usual self on the call, quick with that contagious laugh of his.
Despite being so impacted by a pandemic that has kept a lid on the country for the past two months, Graham said he won’t hesitate to return to the Eagles’ facility once it fully opens and the practice fields once everything is in place for a safe return, or at least with precautions that appear to be safe.
“I don’t want to live in fear,” said Graham, who is now the Eagles’ longest-tenured player at the age of 32 with 51 career sacks in his first 10 seasons.
“I’m going to trust that the NFL when they say it’s time to go, that it’s going to be for our best interests because that’s what we have to do in order for us to have some type of normal about this situation.”
“There’s going to be some timid-ness on a lot of bro hugs, we’re not going to do too much, but it will get back to it,” said Graham. “I just feel like you have to trust that everybody is doing the right thing and going to try to really help this situation other than being reckless with it.
“I think I’m going to trust when we get back. That’s it. Just try to be as normal as I can. Just be safe and not worry about it. If things happen, things happen, I am not going to live in fear. That’s my number one thing.”
Meanwhile, until that day arrives, Graham is quarantining with his wife and two young children in Michigan.
His chores include aren’t much different from the average American, but they are duties that, had the world not stopped, would have included a month’s worth of OTAs and an early June minicamp.
Graham takes out the trash, does laundry, but his biggest chore is taking care of his children, cleaning up after them, giving them baths, doing whatever they need.
“We’ll be down stars playing or I’ll take them out for a bike ride just to burn time and have some fun with them,” he said. “We’ve been playing board games. Really just taking the kids off (my wife).
“I think that’s been benefitting me a lot because now it’s like you have the kids around. But she spends a lot of time with us all the time. I’ll be trying to give her a break in the house because they always want her. Now it’s my time so I always try to interact with them by playing games and doing stuff that they want to do.”
