Philly could have broken Brandon Graham. Instead, he retires with a smile.

Seat by seat, row by row, Brandon Graham weaved his way through a crowd of people who once considered him a bust.

The Eagles defensive end had been walking toward the auditorium stage at the team headquarters when he’d stopped to shake the hand of a media member seated near the aisle. Before long, Graham had decided to shake them all.

He did exactly that. One by one. Columnists, reporters, producers, talking heads. Some got a half hug. Some got a full one. All got a smile.

None could have been surprised. Certainly none who had been there from the start. It was Graham being Graham. But it also felt symbolic.

There was once a time — a long time — when Brandon Graham was known for who he wasn’t. He was not Earl Thomas, the All-Pro safety who went one pick after him in the 2010 draft. He was not Dez Bryant or Eric Decker, the wide receivers who were selected with the picks the Eagles traded to move up and select Graham at No. 13. He was not Trent Cole or Hugh Douglas, the defensive ends whose footsteps he’d been expected to follow. He was not Jason Pierre-Paul, the future All-Pro, who also was on the draft board.

Every day that Graham went to work, he was reminded of who he wasn’t. Who he never would be. He heard it on the radio. Watched it on the television. Read it on the internet. Saw it headlined in the paper.

It would have been hell for anybody, let alone a bighearted kid who had never lived outside the state of Michigan.

“When they put that bust label on me, that was tough because I didn’t want to go outside. I didn’t want to do nothing,” Graham said.

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Yet here he was Tuesday, more than a decade later, eyes shimmering like the diamonds on his neck, offering a personal goodbye to each of his former critics.

The moments and the numbers are what ultimately will define Graham. Minneapolis, February 2018: Second down, 2 yards to go, 2 minutes, 16 seconds to play, Eagles holding a five-point lead against the greatest quarterback comeback artist in NFL history. Tom Brady drops back, steps up in the pocket, sees a receiver open to his right. He cocks to throw, but the ball is missing. Graham is wrapped around his stomach. You close your eyes and still see it, two Super Bowls later. There is nothing like the first time. Graham will live there forever.

Graham’s Super Bowl strip-sack of Brady was his greatest of 82 career sacks, ranking third in Eagles history. The forced fumble was one of 25, nine more than the next-closest defensive lineman. His 132 tackles for losses rank 26th in NFL history. There is no shortage of sentences to include on the plaque. Graham has written his own story.

But that story also includes us. The media, the fan base, the sports talkers, and phone callers. More than a decade ago, a kid from Detroit moved to Philadelphia and found himself in a gauntlet that has broken plenty of men. After the Eagles traded up to draft him at No. 13 overall in 2010, Graham spent the first two years of his career battling the physical realities of life in the NFL. Injuries limited him to 16 games in his first two seasons. By the start of his third season, he had three career sacks.

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Graham was a victim of circumstance as much as anything. The injuries sapped his ability to play with the force he’d exhibited throughout his career at Michigan. Eagles fans saw a shadow of the player they thought they were getting. That was especially true when they looked out west to Seattle, where Thomas, a predraft fan favorite, was blossoming into one of the best defensive players in the league. Graham became a convenient target for those who saw the Eagles sliding into oblivion: 10-6 in 2010, 8-8 in 2011, 4-12 in 2012. The criticism was so open that Graham’s mother, Tasha, was reluctant to wear her son’s jersey when she attended games.

During minicamp in the spring of 2012, Graham gave a memorable interview in which he labeled himself a bust.

“Right now, I’m a bust, so I’m going to deal with that,” he said. “I’m a bust, and I’m going to keep being a bust. Even when I make plays, I’m going to still act like I’m a bust. You know what I’m saying?”

That 2012 season was the end of the Andy Reid Era but the start of something for Graham. He played in 16 games, set the edge, tallied 5½ sacks.

He’s been smiling ever since.

It defines him, that smile. Many of them have been lost beneath the adversity Graham faced. Pat Burrell, Donovan McNabb, Mike Schmidt — the prickle of early rejection never left their spirit entirely. Philly is not a fun place to fall short of expectations. The experience can leave a bitter residue. That wasn’t the case with Graham.

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There were no victory laps. He never told you so. As Graham emerged as a fan favorite and one of the best edge defenders in the NFL, he showed no visible signs of resentment toward the bandwagon’s late-arriving crowd. Somehow.

“I had to work on that,” Graham said with a laugh. “I think for me, winning that [first] Super Bowl, the way it happened. That helped. And know that you aren’t going to make everybody happy. So stop trying.”

Besides, the joke usually is on the unhappy people, isn’t it?

On Tuesday afternoon, Graham sat onstage and delivered an emotional farewell speech. He thanked his family for their support. He thanked his critics for helping him grow. He thanked his coaches, his teammates, the NovaCare Complex support staff, the cooks who prepared his meals. In the front row were his parents. His mother was proudly wearing his jersey.