Calais Campbell – January 2, 2025
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Thursday, January 2, 2025
DT Calais Campbell
(No scoreboard watching on Sunday?) – “No, you don’t want to do that. You don’t want to do that. Just stay our course. Of course if we get a big lead, you start looking over there a little bit more, but the biggest thing is just do our part. At the end of the day, we’ll figure out what happens when the game is over.”
(The amount of years you’ve been in the league, people come to you or players come to you with your experience. Is there anything extra that you’re saying this week to them or everyone is kind of focused and controlling what everybody can control?) – “Yeah, I think there’s nothing actually to be said. At the end of the day, this is about playing a really good football game enough to win a ball game and finishing the year with a bang. Obviously, we have the hope and aspiration to become a playoff team, but it’s not solely in our control. But we have to do our part. The biggest thing is just stay locked in, stay present. If this is our last week, we go out with a bang and if we do our part to earn an opportunity next week and the football gods bless us with that, we’ll take advantage of that. But at the end of the day, just stay present, stay in the moment and give everything we have.”
(Will you still leave with a sense of gratification if the team earns a winning record but you are indeed left out? Will there be something? A feeling of accomplishment for the second half of the season?) – “I think everybody wants to be a winner, right, and having a winning record, obviously there’s only one team that leaves the year happy – that’s the Super Bowl champ. The team that goes and loses is just as upset as the teams that don’t make it. That’s just the nature of the business, but there is some solace in knowing that at least you had a winning record, you’re a winning team; and I think it helps as something to build off of for the people who are going to be here next year and stuff like that. I know there’s a lot of unknowns, but at the end of the day, we’ve just got to do our part and finish the year strong, finish it with a winning record. All that stuff is stuff you can hang your hat on.”
(Speaking on unknowns, nobody on this team made the Pro Bowl. You guys have had a pretty good defense all season, but the last “No Name Defense” here was pretty good. I guess it’s not the…) – “That was surprising that nobody made it, but you’ve got to win ball games. You don’t win enough ball games early on, that affects all those accolades and stuff, too. So I know it’s supposed to be an individual award, but it really is a team award. You always see teams that go on big wins, like this team last year, you had eight players. When you’re a winning team, you always get that extra love. But there are definitely guys in this locker room that are worthy of the Pro Bowl. Jonnu Smith had an incredible year; if that’s not a Pro Bowl year, I don’t know what is. Zach Sieler, another guy I just feel like – you could go down the list. There’s a few guys that are extremely worthy, but it is what is. You can’t do anything about it. The people voted, and it’s just motivation for next year for those guys that feel like they got holes there, so it is what it is.”
(You guys already have enough to motivate you coming into this game, but does that maybe motivate you guys a little more for one last push when there’s names that maybe should be on that Pro Bowl list?) – “No, I don’t think so. That’s not going to motivate me any extra. If you need extra motivation for this, you’re playing the wrong sport. This is for all the marbles. This is essentially a playoff game, and we’ve been in some semi-playoff games earlier in the year just because we needed to win – we started 2-6, you’ve got to win some games to get into the mix – and you say it’s a playoff game because you know if you win, you can probably get in. But it’s hard to win nine straight and we lost two tough ball games to two good teams on the road, but we put ourselves in position to have a shot. But this right here, this is a true, real-life playoff game for us. I know it’s essentially the same thing; you lose, you’re definitely out. You win, you give yourself a chance to keep going and that’s all that really matters. The guys are locked in, guys are focused, they understand what the scenario is. So definitely takes a lot of focus because there’s that doubt that creeps in. It’s like, ‘Man, all my effort, is it going to be worth it? Are the Chiefs going to beat the Broncos or the Broncos are going to beat the Chiefs? What’s going to happen?’ You start kind of thinking about what could be and it’s like, forget all of that. Don’t even worry about the actual end result, let’s play our best football game this week. Let’s be our best this week.”
(You can’t worry about that stuff, especially when you’ve got Jets QB Aaron Rodgers. You already played him once. He put up good numbers, but you guys got the ‘W.’ What needs to get even better against a guy like that?) – “Honestly, he played his butt off last time we played him. That was the Aaron Rodgers that I played against most of my career who’s won MVP awards. He was elite that game, and I know he’s eager to go out there and finish his career off with a bang. I don’t know if he’s going to retire or not, but assuming that he’s in a similar situation as me where this could be your last ball game, what do you do there? You want to go out with a bang. I know that personally. I’m sure he’s going to have the same (mindset) that I have, so it’s going to be a battle, but we have to be at our best. We’ve got to get pressure in his face, make him uncomfortable and it can hopefully be a vintage ball game for us.”
(How much does that thought cross your mind, that it could be your last ball game?) – “Quite a bit. (laughter) Quite a bit. I try not to make decisions during the season. I try to wait till the offseason to kind of really put myself in that, and I do feel like there’s a chance I could play again. I know that it’s not 100 percent or I’m definitely going to be done, but I have to treat this like it could be my last game. That’s a pretty strong emotional feeling there. As much as I love this game, as much as I’ve given this game, the fact that this could be the last one is kind of crazy. But I’m going to go out there and play with all my heart and try to finish with a bang.”
(So when you put on your uniform, when you take it off after the game, you’re going to be thinking “This might be the last time I do this?”) – “Yeah, yes, I will. That definitely is going to be a thought process. I will say that I’ve felt that way before, too, so this is not my first time feeling that way. (laughter) So it doesn’t mean I’m definitely going to retire, but definitely you have to have that mindset because at the end of the day, I don’t know. And I want to make sure that if this is my last game that I make it worthwhile.”
