Tight end Jimmy Graham has played 14 NFL seasons, earning two All-Pro and five Pro Bowl selections. He also led the league in receiving touchdowns once. While his football status for 2024 is still uncertain, he will try to complete an extraordinary ordeal for a great cause.

Graham will be a part of a four-person group that will attempt to row across the Arctic Ocean for 15 consecutive days. Pulling off this challenge will make the veteran football player part of a world record.

According to the specified parameters, teams will row for 24 hours, alternating in two-hour shifts. They will consume up to 8,000 calories daily and experience daylight for 24 hours. Graham and his teammates will get 90 minutes of sleep at a time.

They will attempt this feat aboard a Rannoch RX45 with two cabins and three rowing positions. The carbon fiber vessel is 9.6 meters long and has a 1.7-meter beam.

According to USA Today’s Lorenzo Reyes, the journey will start in Tromso, Norway, and end in Longyearbyen, Svalbard. Graham will be the lead navigator, former Navy SEAL Andrew Tropp, and United States rowing members Hannah and John Huppi will join him.

Graham and his teammates will attempt this challenging journey in July 2025. To break the record, they must complete the trip under 15 days, five hours, and 32 minutes.

The New Orleans Saints selected Graham in the third round of the 2010 NFL Draft. In March 2015, the Saints traded him to the Seattle Seahawks for Max Unger and a 2015 first-round pick. He lasted three seasons with the Seahawks before signing a three-year, $30 million contract with the Green Bay Packers.

After his stint with the Packers, Graham signed a two-year, $15 million deal with the Chicago Bears. However, Cole Kmet’s emergence had him out of football after the 2021 season. Graham signed with the Saints during the 2023 offseason, one year after staying away from football.

-Lance Fernandez