When Jimmy Graham was still a college basketball player at Miami, he got some sound career advice from people with backgrounds as divergent as university President Donna Shalala and former star quarterback Bernie Kosar.
Shalala, who attends Miami sporting events and gets to know the athletes, repeatedly urged Graham to try playing for the Hurricanes' football team.
"I guess I was fouling so much," Graham, a former power forward known mostly for defense and rebounding, recalled with a grin.
Then one day nearly two years ago, Graham was throwing a football around with Kosar, who also broached the subject of switching sports.
"It was weird. I just remember throwing the ball with him in the backyard," Graham began. "He said, 'Jimmy, I think one day you can be a play-maker in the NFL.' I just kind of laughed."
Last Sunday, when Graham was making a leaping, twisting, one-handed touchdown catch - one of two TDs the Saints rookie tight end scored in Baltimore that day - it was apparent that Kosar was on to something.
So, too, were the Saints when they made Graham their third-round draft choice last spring.
New Orleans hoped to develop the 6-foot-6, 260-pound Graham into a player like Atlanta's Tony Gonzalez or San Diego's Antonio Gates, two tight ends with college basketball backgrounds who've thrived in the NFL.
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