Brandon Graham is toast of Philadelphia, believes Michigan can make CFP

Brandon Graham and his wife Carlyne often have their meals paid for by strangers in Philadelphia.

The hero of Super Bowl LII with his strip sack of fellow Michigan grad and New England quarterback Tom Brady paved the way for the Eagles' 41-33 victory on Feb. 4.

“We’ll go out to dinner and people recognize us,’’ Graham said a couple of days after his youth camp in Detroit. “People recognize us and will come up and want a picture or offer to pay for our dinner. It has been great. Everyone is nice.’’

Graham is the toast of both Detroit and Philadelphia. He even officiated a wedding for two lucky Eagles fans in May.

Rod Oden, his high school coach, sat with Graham’s parents during the Super Bowl and called the winning play.

“Yeah, he tells me that all the time,’’ said Graham. “He said ‘BG is getting ready to make a big play.’ ’’

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Graham was at Michigan at a time when the program struggled under Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke.

At his last game at Michigan Stadium against Ohio State, the Buckeyes coaching staff had their own players congratulate Graham on a great career.

“I’ll always remember that,’’ he said. “That was sweet.''

Graham talked to the Free Press about Michigan football, how the Eagles are preparing to defend the title and what his message was to the kids of Detroit during his camp:

In Jim he trusts

Despite coach Jim Harbaugh having a 1-5 combined record against rivals Ohio State and Michigan State, and losing to every team with a winning record last year except Purdue, Graham thinks the addition of quarterback Shea Patterson gives the Wolverines a chance to bounce back.

“I feel good with where we are at,’’ said Graham. “I think Harbaugh, his biggest thing is he has to get his leader of the team. The biggest thing with him is finding his guy. I think with Shea Patterson at quarterback, I think he’s ahead of the game. I think they can go to the (College Football) playoffs. The defense, you can see it’s together. They can only do so much with the offense not doing anything. It has been a tough three years.’’

More Michigan football analysis:

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Jim Harbaugh, Shea Patterson and the RPO: What's it all mean?

Eagles are now the hunted

As the defending Super Bowl champions, Philadelphia is the marquee game on everybody’s schedule. Graham said since organized team activities and with the start of training camp, the team is preparing for the season opener against the Atlanta Falcons, and putting the franchise's championship behind them.

“I think the way we can handle it is going about our business they way we’ve been doing,’’ said Graham. “It’s hard work. You can’t coach that. You have to go out there and put it together. We got most of our leaders back. For me, I’m telling all the guys don’t get satisfied with what we’ve been doing. You have to go out here and prove it every day. With us, I don’t think we’ll have that problem because I know a lot of guys do see us as the big boys. It’s more mental than anything. Everybody now is going to start talking about how good you are. You can’t buy into that. You have to go out and focus on your craft every day. That’s what really got us there. We had the talent. I’ve been about it where we had talent, but we didn’t work hard in practice. That was the difference this year. The hard work.’’

Graham said the most motivated player in the organization might be quarterback Carson Wentz, who was a leading MVP candidate until he hurt his knee late in the season. He watched backup Nick Foles lead the team to its first Super Bowl title.

“I know he wants to be the guy out there leading us,’’Graham said of Wentz. “He wants to be the guy bringing a championship to Philly.’’

Campers learn from Graham

Graham’s camp was last weekend at the new PAL Headquarters at the old Tiger Stadium grounds. Growing up, Graham went to camps and listened to Jerome Bettis and Darnell Hood.

“The camp was good,’’ Graham said. “We had about 125 kids come out. The message was to support one another and be around like-minded people. We promote team work. You can get so much accomplished working together then divided. I tell the kids to know your role and do what you’re supposed to do to make sure you can get where you want to go.’’