JIMMY GRAHAM

For me, trying the NFL and trying this football thing, because of the home and what I went through in there, to me, it was no big deal. It was just another opportunity for me. I didn't see that bigger, grandiose picture of it, I just took it one day at a time, like how I took it in the group home.

Just because somebody is blood-related doesn't make them family.

Whenever you don't catch a ball in a game, you really find out who loves you and who doesn't.

I'm the type of guy who, right as I'm taking off, I'm deciding, 'Hey, where do I want to go today?'

It can get pretty hectic in New Orleans whenever I go shopping. So I'll fly to Houston, buy my groceries, and then come back - nobody cares there because I'm not J.J. Watt.

I played college basketball. When I first decided I was going to play football, there were a lot of people telling me that I wasn't going to make it.

I loved 'Top Gun.' I watched it all growing up.

If I'm man-to-man with a linebacker, well, that's an automatic win because I can run by him. If I'm one-on-one against a corner, I'm gonna catch it all day, because I'm twice his size.

We play a contact sport, and it's aggressive, and you have to be aggressive in everything you do.

The first four years of my career, I never complained. I never demanded. I never said anything about money.

Always felt like I did things right, always felt like I did things for the community and did everything well in New Orleans.

The best way to motivate me is to tell me I can't do something.

For me, I think one of the biggest battles is mentally. You have good days, and you have bad days. Randomly, you'll feel good for weeks, and then all of a sudden, you'll have a bad day where you're really sore. And you end up questioning yourself, like, 'Am I doing the right thing? Why is this so hard?'

New Orleans has these older orange lightbulbs, which are really gorgeous. But the main thing that stands out is actually the Superdome.

Whenever we're all getting ready for a playoff game, you know how serious those games are, and you try to motivate your guys. There's a lot of emotion that goes into those games, and when I play, it's all about winning, and it's all about doing whatever it takes to fire guys up and to get that emotion running.

I got into college, and a gentleman gave me a ride in a plane, and he flipped it upside down so we're inverted flying, like it was nothing, and from that moment forward, I fell in love with it. I said, 'I've got to learn this; I've got to do this.'

My knee injury was something serious. To go six months before I could even jog is pretty serious.

Learning how to walk again was a process for me. It was some of the darker days of my life, but I've had many moments of my life where I've had to just kind of put my head down and work, and this was no different.

In my life, there have been a lot of people who weren't there for me, so to now have people counting on me is awesome.

In my life, the sky is literally the ceiling.

I love my body. I take good care of it.

Seaplanes are like the taxis of the Pacific Northwest.

When I was a kid, I used to think about what my worth was.

All I'm about is winning.

I've always been athletic and fast.