To football fans, Jimmy Graham is the dynamic, pass-catching tight end who the Seahawks acquired in a blockbuster trade this offseason. But Graham also has overcome a lot to become an All-Pro and a millionaire, and he shared his story earlier this week at the White House during a Youth Champions of Change event.
It’s a story he has told a few times, but doesn’t repeat often, and it may not be one that’s familiar to Seahawks fans. You can watch the whole video here, and it’s well worth your time.
Graham tells the audience that, “Growing up, unfortunately around my house, love wasn’t a word that was used very much.”
When Graham, who grew up in North Carolina, was 9 years old, his stepdad, the one man Graham said he loved, gave him up, dropping him off at social services when Graham’s mom wouldn’t give up the $98 per month she was collecting from Graham’s biological father.
“At the age of 9, I was shown my worth from the one man that I loved, which was $98,” he said. “… He gave me up for $98 a month.”
After a year living with his mom and her abusive boyfriend, Graham went to sleep one night and woke up in group home.
“That was the second time that I saw what my worth was as a young boy, and it didn’t seem like too much,” he said. “I cried myself to sleep that night, and probably for about a month.
“For some reason everyone who had loved me or everyone who had responsibility over me gave me away and didn’t see my worth at all.”
Among the struggles at that group home, Graham said, was a time when while on a trip to see a movie, the other kids took turns punching him when the adult supervision momentarily left the van. Graham called his mom to tell her what happened, “and she just hung up on me,” he said.
After nine months at that group home, Graham’s mom took him home and, “For the next two years I took care of myself. I would stay at friends’ houses and would rely on other people to feed me.” Graham said his mom was always away. “She found more comfort in men than her own son.”
Eventually while attending a church group meeting — “They had free food and pretty girls. I said, ‘food and girls, I’ll be there.’” — Graham met Becky Vincent, a nursing student who was moved when she heard Graham pray that his mother wouldn’t take him back to that group home.
“For the next year Becky took care of me,” Graham said. “She told me and showed me what my worth truly was. She was the first woman to tell me I was smart, she was the first woman who told me I was beautiful and that I could do anything I put my heart to.”
Graham said he, Vincent and her daughter were living in a trailer with Vincent making just $12,000 per year. They turned on the oven for heat when it was cold at night, but “Even though we didn’t have money and we didn’t have those things, she showed me love. We had love. At that time in my life, that’s what I needed the most. I needed somebody to love me and I needed somebody to show me my worth.”
Graham was getting failing grades in school before Vincent took him in; before someone showed him he had value and was loved, and he ended up earning A’s for three straight years, he said. From there he went to earn a basketball scholarship to Miami, where he earned a double major in business management and marketing, and eventually he became an NFL star.
Now Graham is sharing his message with kids going through similar struggles, as well as those mentors who are trying to help them out of tough situations. If catching touchdowns isn’t enough for you, then Graham’s life story should make him very easy to root for when he suits up for the Seahawks this fall.
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