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Wednesday night's episode of the NFL's Top 100 Players of 2012 brought us the lofty position of our favorite college basketball player turned tight end, the New Orleans Saints' Jimmy Graham, who came in at No. 14.
You may remember the drama and debate that emerged last week, when stud TE Rob Gronkowski's # 21 ranking on the list (a whole touchdown lower than our boy Jimmy) stirred up some s***. (How could this happen? It's so unfair! Jimmy's not a real tight end and our guy is!! Plus, our guy had a better season!!! Can we get a recount? There must have been some "hanging gronk" ballots that didn't get correctly counted.)
Make the jump for some related trivia and minutiae you might just NEED to know, some videos, and the rest of this week's list.
UPDATE (1:00 PM EST): Now includes actual show segment with his intro and highlights.
First, Jimmy Graham joins guard Jahri Evans as the second New Orleans Saints player to be named the top player at his position on the 2012 list. Boo-Yeah!!!
Second, the Preacher's Kid went from unranked in 2011 to 14th in 2012. That's just the highest debut of any player on the 2012 list. BAM!!!
The Saints are absolutely ROCK-ing this meaningless list. @Yay!@ hashtag
Here are the videos I promised you...
In honor of the occasion, NFL Network hosted Jimmy Graham for an in-studio interview just after the show aired.
Bucky Brooks and Matt Smith weigh in on the question: "Who's better? Graham vs. Gronk."
And here is Brooks's written word column on the matter.
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For those who care, I give you the full list of players ranked 20-11:
20. Ray Lewis, LB, Baltimore Ravens
19. Troy Polamalu, S, Pittsburgh Steelers
18. LeSean McCoy, RB, Philadelphia Eagles
17. Justin Smith, DE, San Francisco 49ers
16. Ed Reed, S, Baltimore Ravens
15. Andre Johnson, WR, Houston Texans
14. Jimmy Graham, TE, New Orleans Saints
13. Jared Allen, DE, Minnesota Vikings
12. Maurice Jones-Drew, RB, Jacksonville Jaguars
11. Terrell Suggs, LB, Baltimore Ravens
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And if you like you some Jimmy Graham now, just wait until next week, when I release a statistical/historical post on Jimmy Graham and the Saints TE position that I started researching months ago...