Five things we learned from Brandon Graham’s ‘New Heights’ interview, including ‘the one thing Chip Kelly had right’

Brandon Graham gave an untold number of interviews in his 15-year NFL career with the Eagles. On Wednesday, the newly retired defensive end became just the second defensive player to go on New Heights, with longtime teammate Jason Kelce.

Here are some of the biggest takeaways from his interview …

Graham’s 15 seasons in Philadelphia weren’t always the best. During his early career with the Eagles, Graham struggled out of the gate after a lifetime of being the best player on the field. He found himself needing to readjust his mindset.

“Stripping that ball on [Tom] Brady, that helped me out a lot,” Graham said. “I didn’t like it in Philly at first, I’m telling you. Philly fans are so tough, man, and it just wasn’t everything I wanted it to be. Coming from Detroit, being a fighter, knowing that, this is your first real adversity, how are you going to fight back? So I think for me, having guys like Trent [Cole] and JP [Jason Peters] in my head, like if Chip Kelly wants you to go play special teams, play special teams and be the best at it.”

After resenting Andy Reid for asking him to play special teams, Graham committed and found his confidence again as he became an elite special teams player. He said he still gives that lesson to young players now.

» READ MORE: Jason Kelce and Jay Wright are both nominated for 2025 Sports Emmys — in the same category

The potential Tush Push ban has been the talk of the NFL offseason, but Graham said he thinks concerns about the play are just apprehension about being able to stop it.

“I don’t want to say soft, but it is,” Graham said. “Ain’t no way I would have showed my hand to say, ‘Man, they need to stop this because we can’t stop it.’ No, if everybody could do it — you’ve got to have the personnel for it, then you’ve got to work the technique in practice like we do. We’ve just got a good thing that we’ve got going. Stop it, man. Ain’t nobody got hurt on it. If anything, you come out from under the huddle like, ‘Ah, man, I’ve got to get ready for the next one.’ But that’s football."

If he could ban any other offensive play in football, he knows which one he’d choose.

“Crack toss,” Graham joked. “Get that up out of there.”

The crack toss is a play that has wide receivers block a defensive lineman in order to spring a running back for a quick toss outside.

» READ MORE: Jason Kelce is sick of being misinterpreted on the Tush Push

Graham’s new children’s book, BG’s ABCs, comes out in May. He wanted his kids to see him do something other than football, so when the opportunity came around to work on a book, he was all for it.

“Me being a family man, I felt like that was right up my alley,” Graham said. “I want to add value to the world, as you know, and the kids is where we’re at. For me, I wanted to do something different, and my wife was all for it. I read to the kids every night anyway, so I thought this would be something that would add more value to the season that we had on top of the person I am that my kids see me every day.”

The Eagles got an F in 2024-25 for team travel on the NFLPA report cards, with the survey citing that “players feel they should get first class seats on team flights instead of the coaching staff.”

Graham and the Kelce brothers took the opportunity on the show to lament that Eagles players still sit in the back on team flights, which Jason Kelce, Graham, and Fletcher Cox often complained about during their tenure with the team — except under Kelly.

“I used to always get out the back because I never wanted to watch all the coaches eating all these M&Ms and stuff like that,” Graham said. “Chip Kelly — the one thing Chip Kelly had right, that boy got us in the front. He was like, ‘We are coaches, they’re the players.‘“

» READ MORE: Eagles mock draft roundup: No one can agree on which player — or position — the Birds will target

Graham also discussed getting questioned about his off-field interests ahead of the 2010 draft.

“It was mostly [Sean] McDermott talking,” Graham said. “Coach Reid was mostly just sitting. I remember when I left, he was talking low, how he talks, it wasn’t as many smiles as it was smiles on draft day. They were asking me — weed was more of a topic at one point in college, talking about smoking, but I didn’t really have any off-the-field stuff in college."

His only violation? A disorderly conduct write-up for playing music too loudly in his car.