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Calais Campbell – September 8, 2024 (Postgame) Download PDF version

Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024
Postgame – Washington

Dolphins DT Calais Campbell

Q. The Tyreek situation outside. You were also detained this morning. Can you take us through your experience and just what was going on there?

CALAIS CAMPBELL: I feel like I don’t want to dwell on it, but I think it was a bit extreme and definitely unnecessary, but I think that a true testament to our preparation for us to be able to overcome that because that definitely was a terrible way to start a ballgame, adversity we faced there. I was driving to the game, the lane I’m in is blocked. I see Tyreek in handcuffs, I’d seen, I feel like excessive force so I get out of the car to kind of just try to deescalate the situation and I think the officer just – I don’t know why he felt the need to put me in handcuffs, but I mean it is what it is. The good thing is we were both able to play the ballgame and go out here and find a way to win the ballgame.

Q. How startling is that when you turn around and you see and it’s a teammate in handcuffs going into a game?

CALAIS CAMPBELL: That’s definitely a first. It is definitely startling especially probably our best player. That’s not what you want to see. Obviously things happen. Life happens and nobody’s going to feel sorry for you. You just deal with it and keep moving.

Q. What reason did police give you for putting you in handcuffs on the scene?

CALAIS CAMPBELL: Disobeying a direct order. I guess I wasn’t – he said I was too close to the scene and then I think he said something about me not moving my car in time. I don’t know. He told me later I could stand 25 feet away, that’s fine. I was definitely further than 25 feet away when that happened.

Q. Did they cite you?

CALAIS CAMPBELL: He told me that I wasn’t arrested, but he cited me for being detained and then released, so…

Q. Did you hear that the officer has been placed on administrative leave?

CALAIS CAMPBELL: I was just told that.

Q. Your reaction to that?

CALAIS CAMPBELL: Makes sense based on the situation. I think it was very much the way it should go.

Q. Did you come out here with an extra fire? You start off right off the bat with a sack your first play as a Dolphin and then a tackle for loss following the play.

CALAIS CAMPBELL: It had nothing to do with that situation. (laughter) I told the guys yesterday that my goal was to set the tone, set the tone for the whole season. Being 38 years old, I don’t know how much I got in the tank. I was just going out there giving everything I had. But I knew early in the game I could make a difference. I had a good read. I was able to make a play, follow up with another play. It’s a good feeling. Definitely the questions you have when you go into a season – Year 17, it’s like, can I still dominate?  Can I still take a full ballgame? And it felt pretty good to be able to make some big plays to get the game going. Still wasn’t my best ball. It was Week 1. Definitely felt like Week 1, something we can build off of and I’ll tell you, this team is resilient. For us to be able to go out there and win this ballgame the way everything happened, the way it went, just says a lot about our preparation. I think this one was definitely the way we prepared, the way we practiced all camp, and all lead up to this game.

Q. Can you just touch on the second half shutout by the defense? What was discussed at halftime to get you locked in?

CALAIS CAMPBELL: Yeah, Coach Weaver just was like, ‘hey, let’s play ball.’ All the plays they made, we know what it was. Like, nobody is just getting beat. We had a couple mistakes. Settle down and let’s just play ball. And that’s what we did. We settled down. So much talent, so many guys that can make plays. Just play our game, don’t try to chase plays, make the ones that come to you and let others take care of itself and he made some big-time adjustments. And guys made plays. I mean, Jevón Holland, forced that fumble. That’s one of the biggest plays. You never know which play it’s going to be. Whatever one it is, though, that was huge. I think that one really was the biggest difference in this game, but a lot of big plays by a lot of different guys. The last drive with back-to-back sacks, huge, but this is a 60-minute ballgame for a reason. We played a really good 60 minutes.

Q. How happy are you for Jaelan Phillips? You mentioned those back-to-back sacks. He had a hand in both of them.

CALAIS CAMPBELL: Yeah, he’s special. He’s special. For him to come back off a big injury like that, a lot of it is getting your confidence back, realizing that you’re still that guy. I think he got out there the first couple drives, it was like, okay, feel it out, feel it out. In the second half, he was on fire to close out the game. That’s the guy we’re going to need this whole season.

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