A former NFL player who is now a Tennessee high school football coach was arrested in a prostitution sting after he allegedly paid to have sex with what he thought was a 16-year-old girl.
Jay Graham, who spent five years in the league as a running back with multiple teams, allegedly responded to a fake adult escort website and agreed to pay $120 for sex — even after the person he thought he was talking to said she was underage.
Graham, 50, was immediately taken into custody on Wednesday when he arrived at a Nashville hotel and handed the cash to someone who was actually an undercover cop, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.
He is charged with patronizing prostitution with a minor and solicitation of a minor for aggravated statutory rape. His bond was set at $45,000, according to police.
Graham played for the University of Tennessee from 1993 to 1996, where he rushed for over 2,600 yards as an All-SEC running back.
He had a five-year stint in the NFL playing for the Baltimore Ravens, Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers between 1997 and 2002, finishing his career with 454 yards and two touchdowns.
Graham spent the next two decades working as a college assistant coach at multiple schools, winning a national title with Florida State University in 2013, according to the Tennessean.
He was the running backs coach at Tennessee in 2012 and again from 2020 through 2022, but stepped away due to mental health reasons, the paper reported.
Graham then spent time at East Tennessee State as a coordinator before being hired in March by Centennial Centennial High School in Franklin.
Williamson County Schools district fired Graham from his coaching position and banned him from school campus after learning of the allegations on Wednesday, according to the Tennessean. He has only been suspended in his role as a teacher as the district has a different process terminating teachers.
“Law enforcement has not indicated that there should be any concern for Centennial families,” a district spokesperson told the Tennessean.
Two other men, ages 46 and 20, were arrested in the sting operation and are facing similar charges, according to police.
