Earl campbell biography injuries in sports
NFL legend Earl Campbell still hits hard, compares current NFL to wrestling
AUSTIN — Earl Campbell, one of the most celebrated football heroes in Texas, leaned on a metal walker and shuffled to the front of his office last week to greet visitors.
He said he has had both knees replaced and had four back surgeries and battled substance abuse since his playing career ended three decades ago. Among the most punishing runners in NFL history, Campbell, 61, wants people who consider him a living legend to know he is, indeed, still living.
“I haven’t gone nowhere yet,” said Campbell, who starred for the Houston Oilers, earned induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1991 and about a decade ago spent 45 days in a rehab facility for abuse of painkillers and alcohol.
He is proud of his recovery — sober for almost nine years, he reported — and for helping Houston secure the right to host Super Bowl LI on Sunday at NRG Stadium. But he expressed little enthusiasm for watching the New England Patriots play the Atlanta Falcons.
In fact, Campbell compared current play in the NFL to professional wrestling.
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“And we all know now that we’re grown men that wrestling’s fake,” Campbell told USA TODAY Sports. “Well, football is not played like it was when I played.
“It was real football when Jack Tatum (a Hall of Fame safety for the Oakland Raiders) and I hit each other on the 2-yard line and I backed into the end zone. And after the game I said, ‘Hey, that’s the best I had,’ and he said, ‘That’s the best I had, too, Campbell.’ I mean, that was real football. But now … ”
Shaking his head at Sometimes it feels as if our heroes are all that are worth remembering in life. In today's sports world, faces and names come and go quicker than you can say brittle material. In football, the hero and legend status are doled out far too easily. Despite an exit from football more than 30 years ago, Earl Campbell's name still packs the same heroic wallop. His memory in the hearts of the public deservedly legendary. It's been more than three decades since the 5'11", 232-pound ball-carrying bull from the University of Texas, joined the Houston Oilers as the first player taken in the 1978 National Football League Draft. One year earlier, Campbell was a consensus All-American and the Heisman Trophy winner. His painstaking style of running earned him induction in the NFL Hall of Fame, in 1991. Campbell's game revealed itself in a character of black and blue shades. His type of sport was more about combat and collective risk -- to himself and to the opposition. When he joined the NFL he was adequately humble and adequately in touch with the reality of the sport and position he played. "I think that a lot of guys, they get out of football and they are lost," says Campbell, 58. Guys have been instructed on what to do from seven to five every day, and told what to do and not to do, and that's a hard switch. I tell guys at the university level to try everything they can to be a student-athlete, but to really learn how to be a student, and to get a degree. Football will outlast you, and that's what coach Bum Phillips always said. I always listened to what it was that he was saying. Eight years went by so fast, it was unbelievable. I made preparation, and I was always thinking about life after football, even after 1978 when I was drafted. I got a Bachelor's degree. I was always thinking about life after football. Part of his life after football is Earl Campbell Meat Products, which has manufactured sausage products for retail and foo American football player (born 1955) This article is about the American football player. For the Canadian hockey player, see Earl Campbell (ice hockey). American football player Campbell signing autographs in 2009 Pro Football Hall of Fame College Football Hall of Fame Earl Christian Campbell (born March 29, 1955), nicknamed "the Tyler Rose", is an American former professional footballrunning back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for eight seasons, primarily with the Houston Oilers. Known for his aggressive, punishing running style and ability to break tackles, Campbell gained recognition as one of the best power running backs in NFL history. Campbell played college football for the Texas Longhorns, where he won the Heisman Trophy and earned unanimous All-American honors in his senior season, as well as numerous other accolades. Campbell was selected first overall by the Oilers in the 1978 NFL draft, and had an immediate impact in the league, earning NFL Rookie of the Year honors. Campbell was also named the NFL's Offensive Player of the Year in each of his first three seasons, during which he averaged nearly 1,700 rushing yards per season. Campbell won the AP NFL Most Valuable Player Award in 1979 after leading the league in rushing yards and touchdowns. With head coach Bum Phillips, Campbell's emergence in Houston coincided with the Luv Ya Blue era, a period of sustained success in which the Oilers made three straight playoff appearances. Campbell became the centerpiece of Houston's offense during the late 1970s and early 1980s. He was traded to the New Orl When I came to my first NFL camp, it was like I was a tall, cold can of beer. They popped the top, and all that energy and desire and ability poured out. I gave of myself with the same passion that I had in high school and college. When I was empty, when I had no more to give, they just crumpled me up and threw me on the garbage heap. Then they grabbed another new can and popped him open, and he flowed out until he was empty. - CURT MARSH, NFL lineman 1981-86 They are the wincing, hobbling wounded: the men who played professional football, a notoriously joint-shearing, disk-popping, nerve-numbing exercise that has grown only more dangerous since Curt Marsh last crashed into a defensive lineman as a Los Angeles Raider. "If you go to a retired players' convention, there are older retirees who walk around like Maryland crabs," says Miki Yaras-Davis, director of benefits for the NFL Players Association. "It's an orthopedic surgeon's dream. I'm surprised the doctors aren't standing outside the door handing out their cards. Hardly one [former player] you see doesn't need a hip replacement. Everybody comes out of pro football with some injury. It's only the degree that separates them." A 1990 Ball State study, commissioned by the NFLPA and covering the previous 50 years of league history, revealed that among 870 former players responding to a survey, 65% had suffered a "major injury" while playing--that is, an injury that either required surgery or forced them to miss at least eight games. The study also reported that the percentage of players incurring such injuries had increased alarmingly: from 42% before 1959 to 72% in the 1980s, after many stadiums had switched from grass to artificial turf. Two of every three former players disclosed that their football injuries had limited their ability to participate in sports and other recreation in retirement, and more than
Earl Campbell
Position: Running back Born: (1955-03-29) March 29, 1955 (age 69)
Tyler, Texas, U.S.Height: 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) Weight: 232 lb (105 kg) High school: John Tyler
(Tyler, Texas)College: Texas (1974–1977) NFL draft: 1978 / round: 1 / pick: 1 The Wrecking Yard