Keep Texans Talk Google Ad Free!
Venmo Tip Jar | Paypal Tip Jar
Thanks for your support! 🍺😎👍

Earl Campbell on the cover of Sports Illustrated

0709_large.jpg
 
a friend of mine told me a short version of a story in the article about Earl

Earl never ran out of bounds, He would turn inside and look for a defensive back. Well he turned inside and ran over a defensive back.(forgot who it was) The guy said that everything went black and he thought he had gone blind,a second or two later , he could see lights and then everything was moving around him and he couldn't see couldn't focus. Well turns out Earl knocked both contacts out of the guys eye
 
On one touchdown run at Texas, Campbell raced full speed through the corner of the end zone and plowed into Bevo, the school's 1,700-pound pet Longhorn. "I hit him in the flank, right here," Campbell says, pointing at the midsection of a longhorn sculpture that happens to be on hand. "Bevo took most of the blow. He didn't fall, but I could feel him stumble backward. After he got his balance, he looked at me and said, 'Moo.'"
Click to expand...

here it is

"It was at the Superdome, and the Saints were on the one-yard line coming in," says former Oilers safety Bo Eason. "My job was to jump over the goal line and meet Earl at the peak. He was all ass and thighs, so there was no place to hit him, but I jumped up, and I hit him square. I mean I popped him face-to-face. After I hit him, I couldn't see anything. All I could see was black. I thought I was blind. Then I opened my eyes, and I was lying on my back in the end zone, and I could make out the lights on the ceiling. They were all fuzzy and blurry and spinning. I thought I was in heaven. Then I turned my head, and Earl was lying right next to me. He reached his hand over to help me up, and I said, 'Earl, I've got to lie here awhile; I think you knocked out my eyes.'

"I realized later it wasn't my eyes. He hit me so hard that both my contacts flew out. The next day we were watching film with our defensive coordinator, Jerry Glanville, and he asked me why I was running the wrong direction the rest of the game. I told him, 'Coach, I couldn't see s---. Earl Campbell knocked my contacts out of my head.'"
Click to expand...




On the day the Oilers handed Campbell his $1.5 million signing bonus, Bum Phillips told him, "You're kind of country like I am. You go put that money over there." Phillips was pointing at Fannin Bank, down the road from the Oilers' training facility. Campbell never hired an agent. Local bankers and accountants managed his portfolio. He met with them after practice, sometimes in his jersey and cleats. The only major purchase he remembers, besides a barbecue pit so wide it barely fit through the fence in his backyard, was the house he bought his mother in Tyler, Texas. Ann Campbell didn't care much for locks on her house, either. She thought neighbors should be able to see her boy's Heisman when they pleased.
Click to expand...


really really good read.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1201775/index.htm
 
Wolf said:
a friend of mine told me a short version of a story in the article about Earl

Earl never ran out of bounds, He would turn inside and look for a defensive back. Well he turned inside and ran over a defensive back.(forgot who it was) The guy said that everything went black and he thought he had gone blind,a second or two later , he could see lights and then everything was moving around him and he couldn't see couldn't focus. Well turns out Earl knocked both contacts out of the guys eye
Click to expand...
the anti-Franco Harris.
 
I still love the quote when somebody pointed out to Bum Phillips that Earl gets up really slow after getting tackled. Bum responded Earl goes down really slow too.

Also in response to someone pointing out his apparent inability to finish a mile run in training camp, "When it's first and a mile, I won't give it to him."
 
Vinny said:
the anti-Franco Harris.
Click to expand...

I heard a John McClain story about Earl awhile back. He said that Steelers fans had much more respect (and still do) for Earl over Franco. Because Earl "played like a Steeler" in their eyes. All grit, never avoided hits, never ran out of bounds.

He said Franco's style rubbed Steelers fans the wrong way, but the his habit of running out of bounds added years to his career in the end.

McClain said Earl is still revered in Pittsburgh to this day. Obviously not the folk hero status he has in Houston, but Steelers Nation still holds him in very high regard.

I always tell my sons about Earl. One day we sat and watched highlights on YouTube. They were both blown away and said nobody runs like that today. I said yep, he was one of a kind, and special dude at that. He was my childhood hero.
 
Double Barrel said:
I always tell my sons about Earl. One day we sat and watched highlights on YouTube. They were both blown away and said nobody runs like that today. I said yep, he was one of a kind, and special dude at that. He was my childhood hero.
Click to expand...

Greatest running back EVER. He had power, speed, and agility. You watch some of his highlights and he had dancer's feet. He did a big man impression of little guy moves at times. I told my kids he was the greatest and then let them watch highlights of Earl and highlights of Jim Brown. They now agree with me. Other backs had longevity, but no one was as great in his prime as Earl. I'll go to my grave with that conviction.

I recently got a signed ball to go with some of my other Earl memorabilia. An Oilers pennant with several autographs and an autographed Dr. Doom picture are the only other pieces of football memorabilia I have.
 
I was always amazed at how slow he looked at times and how it wasn't really that he was slow, it was that he had a kind of "glide" to the way he moved. You see him running up a sideline and he's being chased by several players. look at his legs and how long his stride is. They're busting ass trying to catch him and he just seems to be lazily striding along when in reality he's pulling away from them and covering a ton of yardage with every step. The power is evident in all of his best highlights. He was like a train busting through tackles but his speed was so deceptive. Slow or lazy isn't the right word really. He looked "casual" about blowing defenders doors off on the way to the end zone.
 
Hervoyel said:
I was always amazed at how slow he looked at times and how it wasn't really that he was slow, it was that he had a kind of "glide" to the way he moved. You see him running up a sideline and he's being chased by several players. look at his legs and how long his stride is. They're busting ass trying to catch him and he just seems to be lazily striding along when in reality he's pulling away from them and covering a ton of yardage with every step. The power is evident in all of his best highlights. He was like a train busting through tackles but his speed was so deceptive. Slow or lazy isn't the right word really. He looked "casual" about blowing defenders doors off on the way to the end zone.
Click to expand...

MSR!!

He looked casual... Well right up until burrying his head in your chest!!

Signed,

Isiah Robertson and Co-Signed Jack Tatum
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top