Name: Lions’ Dan Campbell doesn’t care who thinks he’s a meathead
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Lions’ Dan Campbell doesn’t care who thinks he’s a meathead

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Facebook ShareTwitter ShareBy ALLEN PARK -- Dan Campbell has seen what they’re saying about him after that press conference the other week. He’s heard it all. He knows some people, especially people outside of Detroit, just think he’s a meathead.He doesn’t mind.“I said this to Chris (Spielman) the other day, I was like, ‘I love the fact we’re only known as meatheads,’” the new Detroit Lions coach told MLive in a recent interview. “I’m a meathead? I have limited brain capacity? I like (that people think) that. I’m good with that, you know what I mean? I have zero problem with it.”And why does he have zero problem with it?Let’s first roll back the tape to Jan. 21, when Campbell made his Lions debut with . His opening statement went 19 minutes, longer than almost every Matt Patricia press conference ever. He dropped more than 12,000 words over 90 minutes in all, while riffing on everything from “The Big Lebowski” to, yes, some light cannibalism.“This place has been kicked, it’s been battered, it’s been bruised,” Campbell said that day. “And I can give you coachspeak all day long, ‘Hey, we’re gonna win this many games’ -- none of that matters, and you don’t want to hear it anyway. You’ve had enough of that (expletive), excuse my language. This team is going to take on the identity of this city. This city’s been down and it found a way to come up. It’s found a way to overcome adversity.“We’re gonna kick you in the teeth. And when you punch us back, we’re going to smile at you. And when you knock us down, we’re gonna get up. And on the way up, we’re going to bite a kneecap off.”And then what?“Then it’s going to take two more shots to knock us down,” he continued. “And on the way up, we’re going to take your other kneecap. We’re going to get up, and then it’s going to take three shots to get us down. And when we get up, we’re going to take another hunk out of you. Before long, we’re going to be the last one standing.”The kneecap thing went viral, for better and worse. It resonated with much of a fan base that has been a punch line for generations, but didn’t land for a lot of folks around the country who look at a coach who has never even been a coordinator and just think he’s “Football Guy.” A meathead, if you will. .Campbell saw that headline too, and others like it. And he is unbothered by the criticism. He says that press conference wasn’t for people around the country. It was for those who have rooted for this team for years, for decades, for generations, only to have their heart ripped out every single year. And he wanted Detroiters to know he understood their plight, and that he is here to fight for them.“That whole press conference was literally for our team and our fans and community and people that want the Lions to succeed,” Campbell said. “I didn’t care about outside voices. ... Spielman still makes fun of me to this day about my energy, because he said I was slamming the hot coffee. But listen, I told those guys -- Sheila (Ford Hamp) and Rod (Wood) -- that, listen, I want this job. I want to be in Detroit. I want this job, because I identify with this job. You talk about it fitting like a glove? This thing fits me like no other, because I just feel like I can relate to this. I understand, man. I think I’m kind of a gritty guy, you know? Without trying to toot my own horn, I just know who I am. I am very aware of who I am, and I think that, man, I was raised on a cattle ranch. I’m about hard work. I’m a blue-collar kid from a blue-collar family.”Every coach who rolls through Detroit pays lip service to the blue-collarness of the city. The difference with Dan Campbell is he actually is blue collar. He grew up on a 20,000-acre cattle ranch in the middle of nowhere between Fort Worth and Waco, Texas. The nearest town is called Morgan. Population: 490. There are no stoplights and one intersection.Campbell was up early in the morning to feed the horses, tend to the cattle, bail the hay, fix fences, break up the water tanks if they froze. Then he went to school -- where football was played six-on-six -- before returning home to more chores, like wrestling 400-pound calves.“We didn’t have much,” he said. “We had to work hard for everything we had, my dad did, and so that was just instilled in me. I’ve carried those things.”Campbell has come a long way since then. He transferred to nearby Glen Rose High School, earned a scholarship to play football at Texas A&M, then was a third-round pick of the New York Giants in 1999. He went on to play for Dallas, Detroit and New Orleans too, before beginning his coaching career in Miami -- where he became interim head coach in 2015 -- and then serving as Sean Payton’s assistant head coach in New Orleans. He was hired as the Lions’ head coach last month.Of all the stops in his football career, Campbell says he’s never felt a better fit than in Detroit. He was with the Lions as a blocking tight end from 2006-08.“Not that there’s anything wrong with New York, but I don’t think I’m part of the Big Apple, you know?” he said. “Of course I loved Dallas, but I was never part of the Dallas oil boom, if you will. I just felt like this was right. I just did. I felt like this was calling my name, and I was meant to be here. This meant something to me, and I want the fans to know that, man. I want to be here. I want to be your coach. I want to be a part of this. And I get the frustration.“Man, my family’s had adversity. I think Detroit has had adversity. I think that Detroit gets a bad rap. I think that they’re always counted out. I think that everyone thinks Detroit is a meathead, like me.”That’s why Campbell said what he did the other week. It’s why he’s spent so much of his early days reaching out to fans who have seen so much losing over the years. And it’s why he refuses to deal in more coachspeak, because he knows everyone has had enough of it.Campbell has made personal phone calls to fans to introduce himself and deliver this message. He walked into a Mobil gas station near the training facility for chewing tobacco the other day, then got an earful about how the Lions traded Matthew Stafford after wasting Calvin Johnson and Barry Sanders, and tried to reason with the man.“He wanted to know about why we let Stafford go,” Campbell said. “Then he proceeded to tell me about how we ruined Barry Sanders, among others. And so he did tell me he’d have fresh tobacco by tonight or tomorrow. But he wanted to make sure he got his point across, and listen, I got it man. That’s why I’m there. I get your frustration, and I understand it.“I want to be part of the solution. I want our fans to understand that I get it.”Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our , , and (each updated 1/1/21).© 2021 Advance Local Media LLC. All rights reserved (). 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Facebook ShareTwitter ShareBy ALLEN PARK -- Dan Campbell has seen what they’re saying about him after that press conference the other week. He’s heard it all. He knows some people, especially people outside of Detroit, just think he’s a meathead.He doesn’t mind.“I said this to Chris (Spielman) the other day, I was like, ‘I love the fact we’re only known as meatheads,’” the new Detroit Lions coach told MLive in a recent interview. “I’m a meathead? I have limited brain capacity? I like (that people think) that. I’m good with that, you know what I mean? I have zero problem with it.”And why...

Lions’ Dan Campbell doesn’t care who thinks he’s a meathead

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