Calais Campbell – November 26, 2024
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Tuesday, November 26, 2024
DT Calais Campbell
(What is your reaction knowing now that all the charges have been dismissed against your star receiver, WR Tyreek Hill?) – “That’s new information, but it makes sense. Honestly that was just such a long time ago now with all the football stuff and everything else, but going back to that, it was just a crazy moment, really uncalled for but I’m glad the charges have been dropped and hopefully can move past that process. It’s kind of crazy that’s how the season started off, but here we are. Grateful for our opportunity.”
(What kind of effect did that whole situation have on the locker room since then?) – “I think it helped bring us closer together. At the end of the day, we try to build those bonds as a brotherhood. Tyreek (Hill) is captain, star player, just a great guy. You always try to have your teammates’ backs and that’s everything I’ve always tried to be throughout my whole career, really, my whole life is my have my people’s backs. I’m glad I was there for him, but obviously the main thing is just that I’m glad that we can put it behind us and all charges have been dropped because it doesn’t make any sense to start with.”
(Calais, on that day you jumped into action with TE Jonnu Smith and you were briefly detained.) – “Yes. Yes, placed the handcuffs on, it was crazy. It’s relevant and it matters, but now it’s time – for me, my mindset has been just moving forward and try to put ourselves in position to get back in this fight, we’ve had a very interesting season. It started off with the most interesting outside of football, but the season has been up and down. We’ve had a lot of game where I feel like we should have won but we didn’t, and then the last few weeks we’ve been rolling. We’ve been playing really good ball and now we have a great challenge ahead of us and we’re going to make sure we’re on point.”
(After the temperature kind of cooled down from that incident, did you ever have any connection with the officers involved? Did they apologize to you? Was there any dialogue at all or anything?) – “No, but I don’t know if they – I mean they might have tried, but there was just so much going on. So for me, it takes a lot to get ready every week so the time is limited. My mindset is we can deal with it in the offseason, just push it down the road because football is why I’m here, it’s the most important thing to me other than my family and my religion, so I just have to make sure I put everything towards that. I think they might have tried to reach out, but I haven’t talked to them.”
(You came here to compete for a Super Bowl, and now this three-game win streak has put you guys in a position, I know you haven’t done anything yet, where now the rest of this season means something. What does it mean to you that now there are possibilities for this season that you came here to compete?) – “I think we’re in a really good spot. Obviously, football is a four-quarter ball game; same thing here, it’s a full-season ball game. We’ve played some really good football the last couple of weeks, but our best is required now. For us to go where we want to go and get back into this fight, this one is a pretty big one, and it’s special. As a kid, I grew up watching Thanksgiving football and imagined playing on Thanksgiving. I’ve played on Thanksgiving before, but it’s always special. It’s very, very special, and also we’re playing in one of the most historic stadiums that’s ever been built – the frozen tundra. So it’s going to be fun. I’ve always liked those big games; lights are bright and everybody is paying attention. It’s nice to know all the people that grew up in my hometown in Colorado are probably going to be watching, all my friends through college and everything else, these kinds of games are special in that way. It’s motivation to go out there and play really good ball, but really this team, where we’re at right now, we need a win. We’ve got to stay hungry. Obviously, the last couple of weeks have given us a chance to make these games matter and these games definitely matter, but those games don’t mean anything if we don’t get this one. So we’ve just got to keep the same mentality we’ve been having, preparing at an elite level, focused, details and doing what’s required for us to win a ball game.”
(You’ve had a long career, I’m sure you’ve had a lot of cold weather games. Do you give any advice to the guys that haven’t had the most success in these temperature games even though it’s not the coldest this team has played with QB Tua Tagovailoa, etc. Do you do warmers? What’s going through your mindset with the cold or do you kind of just let that slide?) – “There’s things that you can do to give yourself a little bit of an advantage, but at the end of the day it’s really just a mindset, it’s a mentality. I’m a football player; rain, sleet or snow, give me an opportunity to play football and I’m going to go out there and play my game. It’s cold for them too, but it’s technically football weather. It’s temporary. I grew up in Colorado where little league football and high school football, you didn’t have heaters on the sideline. We didn’t have big jackets, you just had to suck it up. Obviously, a lot has changed since then. You were superman when you were a kid, you could run through a brick wall and then nothing happens. Now it’s obviously a little different but we have all the things we need for us to go out there and be successful. That definitely won’t be an excuse, we just have to have the right mindset but I think we’re at a place in our season where we should be locked in and have the mental toughness to go out here and win the ball game.”
(You’re someone that has a lot of routine and you’re preparing for a game knowing that it’s a short week for both teams. Is there different preparation for you to get ready for a Thursday night game coming off of short rest?) – “The short weeks are always a different preparation; you just don’t have that much time. I’m doing what I normally do on a short week, normal Thursday. You really can’t – you just have to make the best of it, there’s not much more you can do. In my experience, I’ve done enough and I was able to go out there and play well on Thursdays. Hopefully I’ve got one more in me, we’ll see. (laughter)”
