2-time Super Bowl champ Brandon Graham retires after 15 seasons with the Eagles

Brandon Graham’s career in Philadelphia began with criticisms that he was a first-round bust and ended with him being one of the most beloved Eagles players of his generation.

Graham retired Tuesday following a 15-year career in Philly that was highlighted by his role in the defensive play that helped deliver the Eagles their first Super Bowl title.

“I gave everything I had, everything I had in this,” Graham said. “I don’t have no regrets.”

Graham, who turns 37 in April, thanked the organization, his coaches, his teammates and his family during an emotional new conference to announce his decision.

He recalled the long journey it took for him to win over the notoriously demanding Philadelphia fans as he went from mostly a backup with only 17 sacks in his first five seasons to a key part of a dominant front later in his career.

Graham said it was tough even to leave the house early in his career when he was given the “bust” label but that he was glad he pushed through and was able to remain in Philadelphia for his entire career.

“We didn’t start so tight, as you know,” he told the fans. "You made me work for this and I appreciate you for that. Through the struggles, the injuries and the moments where I had to prove myself over and over again, you never let me feel comfortable. You held me accountable. You kept that chip on my shoulder. You pushed me to be better, and when the time came, we celebrated together — two times.”

The former first-round draft pick out of Michigan in 2010 ends his career as the all-time leader in games played for the Eagles with 206, ranks third with 76 1/2 sacks and has the most postseason sacks with 5 1/2.

Graham is also one of four players who participated in both of Philadelphia’s Super Bowl wins: following the 2017 season against New England and last month against Kansas City.

Graham returned from a torn triceps to play against the Chiefs. He got on the field for 13 snaps and made one tackle in the 40-22 win and re-tore his triceps in the game.

While Graham had indicated that last season would be his final one, referring to it as his “farewell tour,” he said Tuesday that he might have tried to come back for one more season if he hadn't been able to play in the Super Bowl.

“I was happy to be able to make it back, to play with my guys, put that uniform on one last time at a big moment on a big stage,” he said.

He had a much bigger impact in the Super Bowl win against the Patriots when Graham’s strip-sack of Tom Brady late in the fourth quarter thwarted a comeback attempt and helped deliver Philadelphia its first Lombardi Trophy.

“It was a big moment in my career,” he said. “That's where I felt like things started to get even better from that point on. ... That's something I will always remember.”

Graham’s career began under coach Andy Reid and continued under Chip Kelly, Doug Pederson and Nick Sirianni as he was one the constants on the defensive line for a team built from the trenches.

He had only one season with double-digit sacks — 11 in 2022 when he helped the Eagles reach the Super Bowl — but was a consistent producer of pressure throughout his career.

He made the Pro Bowl in 2020, was a second-team All-Pro in 2016 and was fourth in voting for AP Comeback Player of the Year in 2022 when he returned from a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered in 2021 to have his prolific season as a pass rusher.

Graham had only 6 1/2 sacks in 28 games over his final two seasons but ends his career as a two-time Super Bowl champion.

“We fought and we fought hard,” he said about his teammates. “We celebrated the highs and endured the losses and through it all we built something that can never be taken way: two championships. Two of them. We made history together.”

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FILE - Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham speaks during the team's NFL football Super Bowl 59 parade and celebration, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

Brandon Graham speaks during a news conference announcing his retirement, Tuesday, March 18, 2025, at the Philadelphia Eagles' NFL football training facility in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke

Brandon Graham speaks during a news conference announcing his retirement, Tuesday, March 18, 2025, at the Philadelphia Eagles' NFL football training facility in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke

Brandon Graham holds up two Lombardi Trophies during a news conference announcing his retirement, Tuesday, March 18, 2025, at the Philadelphia Eagles' NFL football training facility in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke

Brandon Graham cries during a news conference announcing his retirement, Tuesday, March 18, 2025, at the Philadelphia Eagles' NFL football training facility in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke

DALLAS (AP) — Unredacted files related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy were released Tuesday evening.

About 2,200 files consisting of over 63,000 pages were posted on the website of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. The vast majority of the National Archives’ collection of over 6 million pages of records, photographs, motion pictures, sound recordings and artifacts related to the assassination had previously been released.

President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that the release was coming, though he estimated it at about 80,000 pages.

“We have a tremendous amount of paper. You’ve got a lot of reading,” Trump said while visiting the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.

There is an intense interest in details related to the assassination, which has spawned countless conspiracy theories.

Here are some things to know:

Shortly after he was sworn into office, Trump ordered the release of the remaining classified files related to the assassination

He directed the national intelligence director and attorney general to develop a plan to release the records. The order also aimed to declassify the remaining federal records related to the 1968 assassinations of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

After signing the order, Trump handed the pen to an aide and directed that it be given to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Trump administration's top health official. He's the nephew of John F. Kennedy and son of Robert F. Kennedy. The younger Kennedy, whose anti-vaccine activism has alienated him from much of his family, has said he isn’t convinced that a lone gunman was solely responsible for his uncle's assassination.

When Air Force One carrying JFK and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy touched down in Dallas, they were greeted by a clear sky and enthusiastic crowds. With a reelection campaign on the horizon the next year, they went to Texas for a political fence-mending trip.

But as the motorcade was finishing its parade route downtown, shots rang out from the Texas School Book Depository building. Police arrested 24-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald, who had positioned himself from a sniper’s perch on the sixth floor. Two days later, nightclub owner Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald during a jail transfer.

A year after the assassination, the Warren Commission, which President Lyndon B. Johnson established to investigate, concluded that Oswald acted alone and that there was no evidence of a conspiracy. But that didn't quell a web of alternative theories over the decades.

In the early 1990s, the federal government mandated that all assassination-related documents be housed in a single collection in the National Archives and Records Administration. The collection was required to be opened by 2017, barring any exemptions designated by the president.

Trump, who took office for his first term in 2017, had said that he would allow the release of all of the remaining records but ended up holding some back because of what he called the potential harm to national security. And while files continued to be released during President Joe Biden’s administration, some remain unseen.

The National Archives says that the vast majority of its collection of over 6 million pages of records, photographs, motion pictures, sound recordings and artifacts related to the assassination have already been released.

Researchers have estimated that 3,000 files or so haven’t been released, either in whole or in part. And last month, the FBI said that it had discovered about 2,400 new records related to the assassination. The agency said then that it was working to transfer the records to the National Archives to be included in the declassification process.

Around 500 documents, including tax returns, were not subject to the 2017 disclosure requirement.

Some of the documents from previous releases have offered details on the way intelligence services operated at the time, including CIA cables and memos discussing visits by Oswald to the Soviet and Cuban embassies during a trip to Mexico City just weeks before the assassination. The former Marine had previously defected to the Soviet Union before returning home to Texas.

One CIA memo describes how Oswald phoned the Soviet Embassy while in Mexico City to ask for a visa to visit the Soviet Union. He also visited the Cuban Embassy, apparently interested in a travel visa that would permit him to visit Cuba and wait there for a Soviet visa. On Oct. 3, more than a month before the assassination, he drove back into the United States through a crossing point at the Texas border.

Another memo, dated the day after Kennedy’s assassination, says that according to an intercepted phone call in Mexico City, Oswald communicated with a KGB officer while at the Soviet Embassy that September. The releases have also contributed to the understanding of that time period during the Cold War, researchers said.

FILE - Newly-elected President Kennedy posed for first pictures at his White House desk, Jan. 21, 1961, before plunging into a busy round of conferences. (AP Photo/Bill Achatz, File)

FILE - Part of a file, dated April 5, 1964, details efforts to trace Lee Harvey Oswald's travel from Mexico City back to the United States, is photographed in Washington, Oct. 26, 2017. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick, File)

FILE - President John F. Kennedy waves from his car in a motorcade approximately one minute before he was shot, Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas. Riding with President Kennedy are first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, right, Nellie Connally, second from left, and her husband, Texas Gov. John Connally, far left. (AP Photo/Jim Altgens, File)

FILE - Part of a file, dated Nov. 24, 1963, quoting FBI director J. Edgar Hoover as he talks about the death of Lee Harvey Oswald, is photographed in Washington, Oct. 26, 2017. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick, File)