Inside The Bills

Bills nurtured Graham’s Super Bowl dreams

He’s one game away from playing in the Super Bowl. But Buffalo native Corey Graham says that’s always where he expected to be.

The Baltimore Ravens cornerback was a guest Thursday night on The John Murphy Show.

Graham is coming off the game of his life, a two interception game against Peyton Manning and the Broncos in Denver last Saturday. Now, he and the Ravens head to Foxboro for an AFC Championship Game rematch with the New England Patriots this Sunday.

The 27-year old Baltimore defensive back says he grew up as a Bills fan in Buffalo, and used to go to games at Ralph Wilson Stadium during the team’s Super Bowl run twenty years ago.

“I actually was a big time Bills fan,” Graham told host John Murphy. “I used to go to the games all the time with my uncle, he would take us to the games all the time. I always dreamed of playing for the Buffalo Bills, I witnessed all the dramatic finishes that we had there in Buffalo that didn’t turn out in our favor.”

Graham says that experience, watching the Bills contend for the title, gave him the confidence to believe he could play in big games in the NFL.

“Yeah, I definitely did. I mean, you dream about that all the time,” he said. “There’s nothing that has happened to me so far that I didn’t think I would be in. I always dreamed about being in the Super Bowl, always dreamed about making the key play to get your team to the Super Bowl or win the Super Bowl. It’s just how it is as a football player, you always think about those things.”

Corey Graham spent the first five years of his NFL career with the Chicago Bears, after they picked him in the 5th round of the 2007 draft. He signed with Baltimore last offseason after spending most of his time in Chicago on special teams. He made the Pro Bowl last year as a special teamer, but Graham was looking for a chance to get on the field on defense. That was the deciding factor in his decision to sign with the Ravens.

“It was a huge factor, to be honest with you,” he said on the radio show. “That was probably the number one factor for me to go somewhere where I could get an opportunity. When I sat down and talked to Coach (John) Harbaugh, I knew that he would give me a chance, and that’s all you can ask for. I knew this would be the place for me.”

It’s a place that may take him all the way to New Orleans for Super Bowl XLVII in a couple of weeks.

The John Murphy Show airs weeknights from 7pm-9pm on the flagship station of the Bills, WGR Sports Radio 550.

Thursday’s John Murphy Show

The big news at One Bills Drive today–stadium renovations. Bills officials played host to ten Erie County Legislators to unveil their preliminary plans for the $130-million dollar renovation plan for Ralph Wilson Stadium. The lawmakers heard from former Bills LB Scott Radecic, an architectural engineer and Senior Principal Partner of Populous, Inc., a stadium design firm the Bills have hired to oversee the work.

Tonight at 8pm on The John Murphy Show, we’ll sit down with Scott Radecic to go over the plans for the new and improved Ralph Wilson Stadium. Radecic says the entire job should be complete in time for the 2015 football season.

At 720pm, we’ll be on the line with Buffalo native Corey Graham, a starting cornerback for the Baltimore Ravens. Graham had two interceptions against Peyton Manning and the Broncos last Saturday, and he returned one of them for a touchdown. We’ll talk with the Turner Carroll High School product about his career and going up against Tom Brady and the Patriots in the AFC Championship game this Sunday.

One of the best football history books I’ve come across in several years in John Eisenberg’s book “Ten Gallon War.” It’s an account of the knock-down, drag out fight for the hearts and mind of football fans in Dallas 50-years ago, when both the AFL Texans and the NFL Cowboys were just getting started. We’ll be live on the line with John Eisenberg tonight at 820pm to talk about the book.

As always, there’s a lot to talk about, especially when it comes to stadium renovations, so the phone lines will be open.

The John Murphy Show airs weeknights from 7pm-9pm on the flagship station of the Bills, WGR Sports Radio 550.