Foxborough, Mass. – New England Patriots tight end Daniel Graham was ready to give up his career.
His big brother needed a kidney and Graham, one of the NFL’s best-blocking tight ends, puts family ahead of football. He was willing to donate one of his.
“I’ve got a bigger role in life,” he said. “This is my brother we’re talking about. It’s a matter of life and death. I can give up what I do for a living. I can find something else to do. If it came down to it, I was ready to do it.”
The surgery took place Tuesday in St. Louis. Jason Graham, 33, got a kidney from his mother Marilyn, who was a better match.
Daniel, 28, was there for the operation and returned from the hospital Tuesday night in time to practice with his teammates, as usual, on Wednesday.
Both his mother and brother are doing fine, he said.
“I think about it but, at the same time, (when) I come to work I try to put that first, and I deal with my family issues when I’m out of work,” he said Wednesday. “The surgery went well.”
Friday will be another unusual and happy day for Graham. That’s when he’ll attend his first Patriots captains meeting. Coach Bill Belichick added him to that group after practice last Friday, a rarity during the season.
“Coach came up speaking. First he asked how my family was doing, then he brought the information to me,” Graham said. “He told me the captains and the coaches liked my work ethic, the physical game I play and everything.”
The only other time Belichick added a captain after the season began was in 2003 when he did it with safety Rodney Harrison. The other captains are Tom Brady, Troy Brown, Richard Seymour, Tedy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel and Larry Izzo.
“It’s really not a goal of mine,” said Graham, who was a captain at Thomas Jefferson High School before becoming an All-American at the University of Colorado.
“I hope a lot of younger guys look up to how I play and what I do off the field,” he said. “But when Coach came up to me and added me onto the captains group, it was an honor for me.”
