Anthony Campanile – December 22, 2020
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Tuesday, December 22, 2020
Linebackers Coach Anthony Campanile
(I wanted to ask you about LB Jerome Baker. The last couple of weeks, he’s had I think 17 tackles, a couple of sacks, tackles for loss. In what areas do you feel like he has strengthened as this season has moved along?) – “I think just in a lot ways, to be honest with you, every day he’s a guy that comes in – and I’ve told you this before – he works relentlessly to get better in each part of his game. I feel like as the season has gone on, there really isn’t one part of his game that he hasn’t improved upon. The run game, the pass game, as a pass rusher, he’s had some success doing all of the things we’ve asked him to do. I’m happy for him. He’s a guy you love coaching because he loves to come to work every day and try and get better. There’s something every day that he’s come in to work on and in terms of studying as well, he does a great job preparing. He has a really good feel for what the opponent is trying to do and who the personnel is. He’s a great guy to coach and I think he’s progressed in a lot of ways.”
(I don’t want to put a hex or jinx on you guys here, but you haven’t had a game postponed or delayed or anything because of COVID. Your team has had issues, but you’ve gotten through it. What has your instruction been to your players on how to stay as healthy as possible and what do you think about the job they did in 2020 and navigating a really tough season?) – “I think they’ve done a great job and really, it’s Coach Flores’ message, to be honest with you, that I think has resonated with everybody. It’s just that you’ve got to be as careful as you can possibly be. We’re all in it together and like we say in here, I want to do the right thing for the guys in the room. I’m here and I’m home with my family, and they all kind of do the same thing. They’ve done a great job with that. We’ve just got a bunch of accountable guys, great people – like I said, great guys to coach – so I think they’ve done a great job with it and the credit really should go to them. They’ve done a tremendous job.”
(When it comes to LB Kamu Grugier-Hill, what is it about his personality? What does he bring to the room like in meeting rooms, off-field interactions and also I’m wondering – we all know you’re a foodie – has he ever recommended any Hawaiian dishes or have you guys talked about…?) – “We’ve talked Hawaiian food. (laughter) I want to get out there. My brother Nunzio has been to Hawaii a few times. That’s like his favorite place. Me and Kamu have talked food a little bit, too. In terms of his personality, just a very upbeat, positive guy and has a lot of multiplicity to his skillset. He can do a lot of things. He’s a very good athlete and a good teammate – a guy in here that people enjoy being around and a guy that I certainly enjoy coaching. He’s a positive ion. He brings a great energy to our room and to the practice field; so yeah, I think he’s been awesome to be around and he’s got a great way about him.”
(I’d like to go back to the COVID question for a second. Going back to say the spring, was there a time that you had some serious questions about whether there would be a season?) – “I personally did not. We were all just taking it in and I think the league has done a great job with all the protocols, and everybody’s tried to the best they can. Like the rest of the country, we’re all doing the best we can and learning as we do. I think the biggest part of it is trying to follow the protocols and our organization has done a great job keeping us informed if anything ever changes and just kind of guiding us through the process. I can’t say enough about how – the people here obviously are the people I’m around every day in terms of our organization – how good of a job they’ve done with ourselves and our family in terms of giving us information and doing the best they can to keep us healthy.”
(What is a positive ion? That’s the first time I’ve ever heard it and you have intrigued me. I’m fascinated. I need to know what a positive ion is.) – “(laughter) He’s just a positive guy. He brings a lot of positive energy. He’s somebody who is happy to go to work every day. He’s never a guy that is too concerned with the last play; he’s just ready to get going on the next play and whatever he can do to help the team. Those are the type of guys you want to be around. You want to be around guys that are positively charged because I think that energy, that radiates to the rest of the guys in the room.”
(I’ve really enjoyed these biweekly press conferences with you.) – “Me too, man. I appreciate it.”
(We ask you a football question, you have this real, real mellow tone. Then we ask you anything about food and you brighten up like nothing I’ve ever seen.) – “I know, right? I guess that’s my upbringing.”
(So serious question, what’s the Christmas spread?) – “You’ve got to go Festa dei Sette Pesci – you’ve got to have the Seven Fish Dinner for Christmas Eve. That’s like the biggest dinner of the whole year. Forget it. Our family, that was like the biggest day of the year. You’ve got clams, scallops, shrimp, calamari, scungille. Hopefully you’ve got some lobster in there, maybe some Baccala. So all the people at home know what I’m talking about, but that’s a big – the Seven Fish Dinner, that’s a huge meal for us and it’s just a great time. Everybody’s together, the family. So maybe this year we’re not; but my wife and my kids, I’m so thankful I get a chance to do that with them. My wife, she’s trying to make a little bit of an addendum to the menu, so we were having a little bit of an argument about that the other day, but I think we got it settled. (laughter) She was really trying to deviate a little bit, which is a little crazy to me, but she’s a little bit more adventurous than me.”
