While Joe Flacco doesn’t view himself as a mentor, Calais Campbell is fully embracing that aspect of his job as he enters his 18th season in the NFL.
Campbell, who will turn 39 in September, is back in Arizona, his NFL home during his first nine seasons. While he is still expected to perform at a high level, the Cardinals are also counting on Campbell to help mentor his young teammates, including 2025 first-round pick Walter Nolen and 2024 first-round pick Darius Robinson. Campbell, based on his recent quotes following Cardinals’ minicamp, is taking his role as a mentor rather seriously.
“I enjoy passing knowledge,” Campbell said, via the team’s website. “I feel there is no point for me to die with all this knowledge, to the graveyard at the end of my career. I have to share with as many people as possible. Especially people that are going to help us win ballgames.
“If I help them to a level that’s better than me, then the team is better and I will find my role and make it work.”
Campbell knows first-hand the kind of impact a veteran can have on a young player. He recalled being a “young buck” when former Cardinals All-Pro safety Adrian Wilson got on him following a practice.
“For him, it was just one day of him being a leader and he won’t even remember it,” Campbell said. “For me, it was a big impact on my career. I had to be better, and I got better because I wanted his respect. But I also learned, with leadership, you have to be able to communicate with guys and help them along the way, and sometimes it’s not being their best friend but being honest and direct.”
It’s clear that Campbell’s mentoring has already made dividends.
“I want to learn as much as I can,” Robinson said when asked about Campbell. “He was here in the beginning. He shows the standard of what I expect from myself.”
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Campbell may not have been in Arizona from “the beginning,” but he was a rookie when the Cardinals advanced to the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history at the end of the 2008 season. He also played an integral role franchise’s NFC Championship game run in 2015.
“This is where I learned how to be an NFL football player,” Campbell said of the Cardinals, who are hoping to make the playoffs in 2025 for the first time since the 2021 season.
A model of consistency, Campbell’s career will surely garner Hall of Fame consideration as soon as he is eligible for induction. A six-time Pro Bowler, Campbell’s list of accomplishments in the NFL also includes an All-Pro nod and inclusion on the NFL’s All-Decade Team for the 2010s. He has also won the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year as well as the NFLPA Alan Page Community Award.
One honor that has eluded Campbell, however, is being crowned a Super Bowl champion. While the 2025 Cardinals are not a trendy Super Bowl pick, neither were the 2008 Cardinals, who ultimately came up a few plays short of upsetting the Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII.
That Cardinals team serves as an example of what an underdog team is capable of. Campbell is surely hoping that Arizona’s current team can write a similar story.
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