Jimmy Graham, Ex-NFL All-Pro, Details Scary Cycling Accident

Former Chicago Bears tight end Jimmy Graham opened up about a near-death experience he had while cycling earlier this week. And from the sounds of it, he was incredibly lucky to get off with injuries that only required stitches.

Graham, who is now a free agent and is currently preparing to sail around the world, explained what happened during a Thursday appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. The 36-year-old pro told McAfee that he had just started cycling last year as a way to stay in shape and ended up falling in love with it.

"I was on my way back to the boat, and I guess a guy in the one lane didn't see me because the sun was was coming up and just took a left and T-boned me," Graham explained. "I was going probably 20, he was going 20-25. I ripped all the skin off my back, I've got that big laceration, and luckily I had a helmet on."

He went on to explain that he narrowly avoided much worse consequences. "I guess he hit my left side, so the side that crunched into the bike just shattered the carbon fiber on the bike in six different places and then that ran into my leg," he said. "So at first I thought I shattered my leg but it ended up just being a cut. I think all the years of punishment in the NFL kind of built the calluses up, you know?"

Graham added that the notoriously reckless Miami drivers mean "your antenna's always up down here," but unfortunately "I couldn't get out of the way fast, and you know, he just didn't see me at all."

"I started cycling last year because I wanted to stay in shape after football and I fell in love with it..

The dude driving just didn't see me and I thought I shattered my leg but it ended up just being a cut" ~ @TheJimmyGraham #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/oAehIi6Jo7

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) May 11, 2023

Just a day earlier, Graham's friend, former Green Bay Packers linebacker A.J. Hawk broke the news of the accident to McAfee—albeit, with a far more graphic retelling.

"He says he did more damage to the car than the car did to him," Hawk recalled. "He has a slice on his calf that looked like he had worms growing out of it. It was so deep and all the stuff in there you could see. Now he has tons of stitches and all of that."

It sounds as though Graham was indeed very lucky to have walked away from the accident. Hopefully, he'll stick to cycling during daylight hours from now on.