NFL Media's Oklahoma Drill series presents exclusive, quick-hitting one-on-one interviews with players and coaches from around the league. No nonsense -- just football experiences directly from the source.
Calais Campbell
Defensive End, Arizona Cardinals
Born: Sept. 1, 1986
Experience: Eight NFL seasons
Interview by Rachel Wenzlaff | June 9, 2016
When I was younger I used to be like jaded by the media a little bit. They wouldn't really give me a lot of attention, and, you know, I don't do things to try and go get attention -- that's not my style at all. But I feel like once you start playing well and you start going to Pro Bowls and stuff, it comes with the territory. And for me, I use the media as an avenue to reach my fans and talk to people and show who I am. And as long as you use it the right way, the media is good.
I only let the ["All or Nothing" camera crews] come to a couple things, which now that I'm like looking back, I'm like, Man I probably should have let them come to a little more. They did follow me home a couple times. We did some outings with the D-line and they got to come to some of those which was fun. I showed up late and they gave me a slow clap -- kind of funny. I'm sure that's going to be on there. I don't like being late, but somehow I got [that] reputation even though I'm on time -- really early most of the time.
The biggest troublemaker on the team ... well the biggest personalities are the DBs. Those DBs, they're always trying to make people laugh. They're pretty funny, too. They're always keeping me laughing so you could really go and you could pick your poison.
There are some personalities on our team, a lot of people who are really quality guys, and I think the NFL sometimes gets a bad rep for guys not being quality.
Our team, for some reason, I think the front office does a really good job drafting the right kind of guys, but everybody's just good people. They mean well. You know, there's not a lot of prima donnas or bad egos.
It's completely different. I mean in 2008 we were really good.Well, we had an OK season, but we got hot at the right time; you could sense in everybody's eyes that we had a chance. We went to the Super Bowl, and we came within seconds of winning the championship. … But when Kurt Warner retired and Anquan Boldin left and some of our big-time playmakers started going different places and retiring … we had to rebuild. Then [Ken] Whisenhunt gets fired and you're like, This is going to be a new beginning. It's going to be crazy. And I liked Whisenhunt, I thought he was a great coach. … But you knew it was going to come because we weren't doing too well, but it was like wow.
But then Steve [Keim] kind of takes over, [Bruce Arians] gets hired, and they build a culture -- a winning culture. I step into a leadership role myself. I think we have some of what I felt in 2008 when we had a chance to really win it; that confidence and that just energy around the locker room, I sense that now, and that feels good because that's rare. It's been eight years. It's my ninth season, and I've only sensed it a few times.
A lot is similar from that feeling but completely different as far as the tone in the locker room -- the setup. Plus, with technology and being able to watch film at home, I mean everything's changed. It's tremendous.
I used to have to buy this old computer to watch film at home. ... But now you just hit a button and everything's downloaded, and you can watch whatever you want to. It's so much better.
One of the things that makes [Arians] special is he's so honest. He's completely honest
[Coaches] always try to make things sound good, how to reach you. But him, he'll give it to you raw, 100 percent real and there's a lot of respect in that.
I very much hope to be a Cardinal my whole career. It's hard to do, and there's a lot of prestige that comes with staying with one team your whole career. … I would really like to be one of those guys that gets a chance to, and, I mean, it's always tough because it's the business side of the game. But I still feel like I'm in the prime of my career, going into Year 9. I'm a veteran, I like to joke around like I'm old, but I feel great -- I feel fantastic.
I feel like I have a lot of good years left in me, and I would love to spend them in Arizona and trying to bring the Bird Gang a championship.
[Safety-based rule changes are] good for the game. At first you look at it from a selfish standpoint, and it makes my job a lot harder. But you think about it from the aspect of football and the game, like prolonging it, and the future, like … when I have kids and they start playing and stuff, you want the game to be as safe as possible.
I do think some of the rule changes were to sell more tickets cause there is that aspect of offense and making the rules better so that we can score more points. But you think about that in the grand scheme of things -- it's genius. … People want to see touchdowns, see big plays, and the way the game has changed and evolved, there's a lot more big plays every game. There are explosive plays all the time. Whereas you look at old footage, back in my early years or even before then, it was still a running game and there was a lot more lower-scoring games. Now you're seeing these big scores and great highlights and Odell Beckham one-handed catches and those things are special. It's fun. But when you throw the ball 40 times a game, you're going to see a lot more plays like that. So it's awesome. It's awesome for the game of football.
The one person that I have not sacked that I really wanted to before I retired was Peyton Manning, but he retired. But I did intercept him. ... About seven or eight times I had real opportunities to sack him], but he just threw the ball right before I got there. But the interception makes it worthwhile. But after I intercepted him, I let him tackle me. I got tackled on the 2-yard line! It sucks, but I still intercepted a [Hall of Fame quarterback.
CRC is named after my father, those are his initials, and I really wanted to instill some of the life lessons that he put in me into a lot of the youth. I really value education; giving yourself knowledge is going to lead you to have a real opportunity to be successful. I think knowledge is power, and the more knowledge you have, the more resources you can create, the more you can do whatever great things you want to do. There are a lot of kids out there that I believe have so much potential but don't know how to tap into it, so I just want to give them information and a lot of that comes with just giving them resources and trying to help them educate themselves to the best they can.
I believe that there's some kid out there who I'm going to be able to touch that's going to make a huge difference in this world someday. I don't want anything in return; I just want to know that I did my part.
I have five brothers, two sisters -- sisters are oldest -- and they were like second moms.But growing up with five brothers -- we're all close in age, six brothers in 7.5 years -- so we're all like a year apart.
I always tell kids that I try to influence to surround yourself with people who have the same goals that you do, and it's kind of nice to not have [had] to search too hard because I always had my brothers who always had the same values and same kind of character that my dad instilled in us.
One of my brothers is a standup comedian. All of my brothers could be standup comedians. My sisters are very dramatic, probably a little overly dramatic. And we'll just say that I was contacted to see if [my family] wanted to do a reality TV show, and I think it would just be too dramatic, my personal life. People would love it, they would, but I just don't know if I'm ready to show that side of me just yet.
I think I'm really good at basketball. Nowadays I'm not as good as I could have been, but I believe I could have been in the NBA and probably been a good player in the NBA. But ever since I was 6 years old, I wanted to be in the NFL, before I even knew I was going to be good at sports.
