- Jimmy Graham could become the first black man to row in a polar ocean
- Pro Bowl tight end incredibly has no rowing experience to date
- DailyMail.com provides the latest international sports news.
Veteran NFL player Jimmy Graham will attempt to row across the Arctic Ocean next year with a team of three others, he announced.
Nicknamed ‘The arctic challenge‘, the mission will see Graham, former US Navy Seal Andrew Tropp and elite rowers Hannah and John Huppi attempt a 1,000 km (621.3 mi) journey.
The quartet will depart Tromso, Norway, in July 2025, and hope to set multiple Guinness World Records.
“The impact of the Arctic Challenge goes far beyond the four athletes and the Arctic Ocean,” Graham wrote in his account x.
“With a mission to inspire young minds, the team aims to challenge the next generation to go beyond their limiting beliefs and chart their own course.”
Jimmy Graham will embark on a new sporting journey next summer in the Arctic Ocean
Incredibly, Graham has no rowing experience to date.
According to the Challenge website, the team will sleep no more than 90 minutes at a time, rowing their nine-meter boat for 24 hours a day in alternating two-hour shifts.
The group will aim to consume a whopping 8,000 calories per day and are expected to remain at sea for 10 to 21 days.
The trip will end in Longyearbyen, Norway.
If the group manages to complete the journey, they will become the first co-ed team to row the Arctic Ocean.
Hannah Huppi would also become the first woman to row in the Arctic, while Graham would become the first black man to row in a polar ocean.
Ocean Revival set the current Arctic Ocean speed record (15 days, 5 hours and 32 minutes) last year.
Graham impressed in the preseason (above) in 2023 but didn’t play much in the regular season.
Graham told fellow NFL player Cam Jordan on his ‘Podcast “Off the Edge”“This really gives me something to look forward to and something that I can athletically push myself in a new direction.”
And I don’t have to take hits anymore. I can just sit down and get to work.’
The mission will also benefit three charities that “support disadvantaged youth,” according to the Arctic Challenge website.
Graham, 37, is a five-time Pro Bowl selection and has played for the Saints, Seahawks, Packers and Bears over 13 seasons.
It is possible that the 2023 season was the last, as said goodbye to Saints fans after.