When he was an assistant coach, he sneaked his sleep by lying flat under his desk for 10 minutes. As a head coach, he admits, “The accommodations have improved.”
Still, Campbell doesn’t like to sleep overnight in the office, although he sometimes does. That’s hard on his wife, he says, and has been hard on his kids. He does it, he explains, because the grind is what makes him good.
“When you’re not around football, you realize the hardest part is the part you miss,” he said. “Yes, you miss the camaraderie. Being around the guys, being around something bigger than yourself. But it’s the grind. You miss the grind. And for somebody like me, that was always what separated me from a lot of people. That’s how you got your edge.
“Playing is one kind of grind. Preparing your body. But coaching is about preparing your mind. And knowing you’re able to do something that you don’t feel like everybody can do, or they ‘re not willing to go to the places you’re willing to go to, that’s how you get your edge.”
Campbell can’t remember how many surgeries he endured in the NFL. “Thirteen or 15?” he says. Knee, foot, elbow, an appendectomy.
“I joke about this, and Holly (his wife) gets mad at me,” he says, “but it’s like, my first three surgeries, man, she’s there, she’s right with me. But by four, five, six, she’s just pulls up to the front of the hospital, drops me off and says, ‘Tell him to call me when you’re done.’ ”
He laughs heartily. But the scars are real. And they’ve given Dan Campbell an empathy for players with injuries, as well as an acceptance that injuries are as much a part of the NFL as truck commercials, so you’d better find depth on your roster or you’ll be out of luck.
It’s also a reason he refuses to use injuries as an excuse. The Lions this year are like the intake desk at an emergency room, with nearly two dozen players — and a massive chunk of their defensive stars — going on injured reserve.
Campbell was no stranger to that list. But two specific times, in back-to-back seasons, taught him lessons that shaped his coaching. The first was the worst year in Lions history, 2008, when the team lost every game of the season. Campbell got hurt early that year and was done, unable to help stave off the ugliness. That hurt.
The second stint was a year later, 2009, when he signed with New Orleans, reuniting with Sean Payton, who was his offensive coordinator in New York and Dallas. That year, Campbell also got hurt early, went on injured reserve and missed out on a Super Bowl run that resulted in a championship, the only one in his NFL career.
More: Dan Campbell believes his Detroit Lions can handle late-season pressure — and they can
He didn’t play a down.
“That was hard,” he admits. But in addition to developing his empathy for injured players, it also taught him something precious about the NFL, which is …
6. The Super Bowl lesson
When I ask Campbell the difference between making a Super Bowl and winning one, he leans in and his eyes narrow.
“Yeah, they’re two totally different things,” he said. “Because I’ve been to one with the Giants. I went (in 2001) and we got smacked by Baltimore (a 34-7 defeat). And you know, people keep telling me, one day you’re gonna look back on that and be like, ‘Man it was awesome. You got to play in a Super Bowl.’
“I haven’t gotten there yet. To me, you’re there to win it. That’s the ultimate prize. So, no, the making it — you got to make it to win it, all right? But it’s all about winning this thing, man. Because otherwise, just for me, personally, you’re short of where you want to be.”
The bottom line
If you spend an hour with Campbell, you want to spend two. If you spend a day watching him coach, you want to spend a week. There is an undeniable energy about him, and it will no doubt be on display Sunday night at Ford Field, in all its gritty glory.
But we are all a byproduct of the things that shaped us. And before Campbell began shaping men in Lions uniforms, he himself was shaped by the people and situations around him. His steel was forged in never quitting, never treating people unequally, never ceasing to grind, never underestimating injuries, never stopping until the ultimate prize is in hand.
And sometimes never sleeping.
He is, as his mother foresaw, Daniel in the lions’ den, his belief as his shield. And he is, as his brother suggested, Daniel Boone, guiding his team to a new frontier. And he surely is, in Sunday night’s big game, Braveheart on that horse, his gravelly voice exhorting his men to victory.
A Man in Full. From that childhood defeat when he saw his young teammates responding to his passion, to this nationally televised NFL regular season finale, destiny seems to be steering him. Coaching, Campbell says, “is why God put me on this Earth.”
Given how far he has come, could anyone disagree?
Contact Mitch Albom: malbom@freepress.com . Check out the latest updates with his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com . Follow him @mitchalbom .
