Earl Campbell

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This article is about the American football player. For the Canadian hockey player, see Earl Campbell (hockey).

Earl Campbell
Date of birth	March 29, 1955 (age 52)
Place of birth	Tyler, Texas
Position(s)	Running back
College	Texas
NFL Draft	1978 / Round 1/ Pick 1
Career Highlights
Pro Bowls	1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1983
Awards	1979 AP NFL MVP, 1979 Bert Bell Award, 1977 Heisman Trophy
Honors	NFL 1970s All-Decade Team
Stats
Statistics	Pro Football Reference DatabaseFootball
Team(s)
1978–1984 1984–1985	Houston Oilers New Orleans Saints
Pro Football Hall of Fame, 1991

Earl Christian Campbell (born March 29, 1955) is a former professional American Football running back and is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

His nickname is The Tyler Rose, a reference to his hometown of Tyler, Texas which is known as the "Rose Capital of America" for its prominent place in the rose-growing industry. He went to John Tyler High School.

[edit] College and professional career

Campbell was born in Tyler, Texas, the sixth of eleven children. His father died when he was 11 years old. He began playing football in fifth grade as a kicker, but moved to linebacker and running back in sixth grade.

As a collegiate football player at the University of Texas at Austin, he won the Heisman Trophy in 1977. He was selected as the Southwest Conference running back of the year in each of his college seasons and finished with 4,444 career rushing yards.

He was the first draft pick overall in the 1978 NFL Draft by the Houston Oilers and in that year named the Offensive Rookie of the Year by the Associated Press as well as the Most Valuable Player.

Campbell possessed a rare combination of speed and power, and was a prolific running back from 1978 through 1985. His outstanding single-season performance in 1979 earned him all-pro, Pro Bowl, and NFL Offensive Player of the Year honors. It was also the second of three consecutive seasons in which he led the league in rushing. Only Jim Brown had previously accomplished that feat. Campbell led the NFL in rushing in 1978, 1979, and 1980, played in five Pro Bowls and finished his career with 9,407 yards and 74 touchdowns rushing along with 806 yards on 121 receptions. In 1980, Campbell's best year in the NFL, he ran for 1,934 yards including four 200-yard rushing games, including a personal best 206 yards against the Chicago Bears. Despite playing against stacked defenses and being gang-tackled nearly every time he carried the ball (a then-record 373 times), Campbell managed to average 5.2 yards per carry and scored 13 rushing touchdowns in 1980 alone.

In 1983, he was traded to the New Orleans Saints, reuniting him with his former Oilers coach O.A. "Bum" Phillips. The trade was controversial in New Orleans, as it was widely believed that Campbell's skills had diminished, and the Saints already had the young George Rogers in the backfield. Campbell played in a diminished role in 1984 and 1985, and retired during the preseason of 1986, feeling that the beating he had taken during his career had taken too much of a toll.

Campbell is one of only two players (quarterback Brett Favre is the other) to receive some form of the NFL Most Valuable Player Award in three consecutive regular seasons.

Campbell is widely acknowledged as one of the best running backs in NFL history. He is considered a prototype for the bruising, power running back. Described as a "one-man demolition team," Campbell was a punishing runner. His 34-inch thighs, 5-11, 244-pound frame, coupled with 4.6 speed, made him the most feared runner of his time. Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Fame defensive tackle Joe Greene claimed that Campbell could inflict more damage on a team than any other back he ever faced.

Former Heisman Trophy winner and former Miami Dolphins player Ricky Williams was often compared to Campbell during Williams' days at The University of Texas. Even now, big running backs that use powerful legs to their advantage are occasionally nicknamed "Little Earl," most recently to some publicity with Gary Russell of the University of Minnesota. [1]

The pride that prodded Campbell to stretch out every run over eight grueling seasons for the Oilers and New Orleans Saints also might have been responsible for his relatively short career. All of the pounding he absorbed, all of the bone-jarring blows from second, third and fourth tacklers wore down his body and prompted a premature drop-off in performance. Debate still rages as to whether Coach Bum Phillips hastened the end of Campbell's career by overworking him; nevertheless, the consensus is clear that during Campbell's heyday, few running backs were as productive or imposing.

In 1999, he was ranked number 33 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players, the highest-ranked player for the Houston Oilers franchise.

The Statue of Earl Campbell at Royal-Memorial Stadium.

Campbell, Texas’ first Heisman Trophy winner in 1977, was honored at halftime against Ohio State on September 9, 2006. The school unveiled a new 9-foot statue of Campbell in the southwest corner of Royal-Memorial Stadium Saturday afternoon. The same year, Campbell graced the cover of Dave Campbell's Texas Football, an honor that eluded him during his playing days.

[edit] Personal life

In 1980, Campbell married his high school girlfriend Reuchalle Reuna Smith. They have two sons: Christian, who ran track at the University of Houston, and Tyler, who currently plays football for San Diego State University.

Due to the countless of carries in his NFL hayday and numerous hits on his body, Earl Campbell has great difficutly walking and is sometimes confined to a wheelchair. In 2004, ESPN showed a segment about retired and current NFL players who deal with chronic injuries due to playing in the NFL over a number of years. The segment showed Earl Campbell at a farm confined in a wheelchair who also had great difficulty walking by himself. Campbell probably developed severe arthrtis in his knees. The Campbell segment was shown to former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome Bettis by ESPN. Bettis stated after watching the Campbell segment that he does not want to end up permentantly disabled after his NFL career.

He also sells a line of sausages.

[edit] External links

Official website
Pro Football Hall of Fame: Member profile

Preceded by Tony Dorsett	Heisman Trophy Winner 1977	Succeeded by Billy Sims
Preceded by Terry Bradshaw	NFL Most Valuable Player 1979 season	Succeeded by Brian Sipe