Even though he has won both his games as the Miami Dolphins’ interim coach, Dan Campbell has decided not to look at Thursday’s game against the unbeaten New England Patriots as a match of wits with the guy in the hoodie on the other sideline.
Smart move. Bill Belichick has won four Super Bowls, and Campbell, a 39-year-old native of Clifton, Texas with a goatee that makes him look even more intense, was merely serving as the Dolphins’ tight end coach before he was picked to replace Joe Philbin three weeks ago.
But that is not the way Dan Campbell works, anyway. Unlike the glum and joyless Belichick, Campbell got to his sideline by being ferocious and intense – which is the reason Dolphins’ owner Stephen Ross made Campbell the interim head coach, instead of going the traditional route and promoting offensive coordinator Bill Lazor or defensive coordinator Bill Anarumo.
As Campbell said at a news conference Tuesday: “When you’re going into play New England on a Thursday night you don’t have to be worried about being grounded. We know we’ve got our hands full. So [as far as] me patting yourself on the back and all that, we know what we have in front of us. We know it’s not going to be easy, and over-confident is the last thing we are going to be doing when we walk in Thursday.”
Before he launched a 10-year NFL career in which he caught all of 91 passes for three teams, Campbell played at Texas A&M. He usually left everything out on the field, as football coaches like to say.
After the Aggies upset No2 Nebraska in College Station, Texas, on October 10, 1998, Campbell was so exuberant and so drained that he took swigs in the interview room from a bottle of Pedialyte, the liquid that parents give their dehydrated children after they get sick.
Campbell caught just 27 passes in his college career, but he threw blocks with passion, so the New York Giants took him in the third round of the 1999 NFL draft. He was there for four seasons, then with Dallas for three seasons, then with Detroit for three more seasons. He played in Dallas for Bill Parcells, who made a good impression.
“I’ve said it before: nobody is as good as Bill Parcells at motivating players,” Campbell said Tuesday. “And just the way he did it. He knew who needed a hug. He knew who needed a kick in the rear. He knew who needed to be challenged and who needed to be built up. To me, those are the things I remember most about Bill.”
Campbell then said: “I mean, he was a great game manager. He knew exactly how to attack teams; what we had to do as a whole team on offense, defense and special teams. Certainly those game situations, you’ll never forget. But just as far as dealing with players to me, that’s what I learned more from him than anything.”
Campbell encountered the good and the bad along the way. He played in a Super Bowl with the 2000 Giants (which they lost to the Baltimore Ravens), and he also played for the Detroit Lions’ 2008 team that lost all 16 games.
Campbell’s claim to fame as an NFL player was probably his spot on USA Today’s “All-Joe” team in 2003. This “all-star” team, of sorts, pays homage to “older players in the NFL who continue to make a difference with their work ethic and demeanor.”
He signed with New Orleans before the 2009 season but never played a game for the Saints because he tore up his knee before the season began. Campbell joined the Dolphins’ staff as an intern the next year, and five years later, he has his own NFL team to coach.
The Dolphins lost three of their first four games this season under Philbin, the final game coming October 4 at Wembley Stadium in London, where the Jets pretty much flattened Miami, amassing 207 yards rushing and a 14-minute edge in time of possession in a 27-14 victory.
Philbin was sacked the next day. Campbell was handed the job for the rest of the season, and he vowed on his first day in his new job that the Dolphins were still out to win. And, in his debut, they did, pounding the Tennessee Titans, 38-10. But that was just a warm-up.
In their first game under Campbell at home, the Dolphins scored 41 unanswered points before halftime and rolled to a 44-26 victory over the Houston Texans. It should be worth noting that the Titans and Texans, combined, have won only three of 13 games this season.
But still. The Dolphins are 3-3, very much in contention for a playoff berth, and here is Campbell, facing a team coached by Bill Belichick.
The great quarterback Tom Brady said in a news conference Tuesday that the Dolphins were playing so well, especially on defense, that the Patriots stay in control with a multi-dimensional attack. Brady gained 15 of New England’s 16 rushing yards in a 30-23 victory Sunday at home over the Jets.
“He’s going to figure out most of it, if not all of it,” Campbell said Tuesday of throwing different looks at Brady, “but at least you’re making a try. There’s got to be a fine line between your disguise, but then you’ve got to play what you play. You’ve just got to have enough of that stuff in there to where at least you make him think a little bit, but what else are you going to do?
“If you look at all the things teams have done to him, it doesn’t work. You can say part of it works, but it’s hard and that’s why Tom Brady is Tom Brady, that’s why he’s that good because of the things he can do.”
Campbell was asked Tuesday on a conference call with reporters who cover the Patriots if he felt as if he was adapting to his new role. True to form, he said: “I think every week and every day I’ve gotten a little more comfortable, but I don’t know if the nerves will ever go away, to be honest with you. To me it’s a good feeling, it’s a good nervous energy and if I don’t feel that anymore, it’s probably time to get out.”
