Jack Campbell was a first-team All-Pro linebacker for the Detroit Lions last year. Today he is in a hospital bed, hoping to escape partial paralysis.
Campbell made a tackle Sunday and never got up. Medical personnel, starting with the Lions’ staff, did everything right. He was alert leaving the field and according to a statement he released Wednesday, has “full movement in my lower body, and I’m continuing to make progress with movement in my upper body.”
He shared his gratitude for all who have cared for him and all who have prayed for him, and said he is very optimistic, “taking things one day at a time, staying positive, and focusing on getting better. My faith in God has never been stronger. I know He has a plan for me, and I trust in that plan.”
He won the Butkus Award, as the best linebacker in college football, for the Iowa Hawkeyes. He led his high school in Cedar Falls to back-to-back state championships – in basketball.
Along with all of his football feats at Iowa, he also won the William V. Campbell Trophy awarded to the college game’s top senior scholar-athlete.
More that you probably didn’t know about a few pros:
Saints defensive end Cam Jordan, who has made eight Pro Bowls, and three times has been the team’s Walter Payton Man of the Year winner for community service, flew home to Arizona to vote Tuesday on the team’s off day. He has never changed his registration to New Orleans and usually votes with a mail-in ballot, but it didn’t reach him in time.
Jaylen Brown, who scored 30 points Wednesday night in the Philadelphia 76ers’ 112-106 road win over the Detroit Pistons, is a Director’s Fellow at the MIT Media Lab and has spoken at tech summits hosted by both Harvard and MIT.
NASA had him speak about science education at the Goddard Space Flight Center. By the way, he arrived in the NBA as the third pick in the 2016 NBA Draft by Boston, won a world championship and was the 2024 Finals MVP.
When the Celtics announced his record $304 million contract, he was at MIT with high school students participating in a program he started to introduce them to artificial intelligence and robotics.
Jeffrey Simmons, recently traded by the Tennessee Titans to the Chicago Bears, made his debut memorable, leading them with six tackles, including a sack and two tackles for lost yards in this week’s Monday Night Football game, a 34-17 Chi-town victory at reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle.
Then he picked up trash in the Bears’ locker room. After all but another teammate had headed for the buses, Simmons began collecting empty water bottles and cups and such and putting them where they belonged, and the other Bear, receiver Jahdae Walker, joined in.
“True leader and amazing display of servant leadership,” posted a witness, former Bear Jason McKie.
Simmons wears long orange sleeves below his Bears jersey, so his 3-year-old daughter can find him during the games.
Ten years ago, he was teaching chemistry at a high school in Katy, Texas, just outside of Houston. Tuesday, Jason Kanzler was named manager of the Seattle Mariners, seven years after his MLB career began with the Houston Astros as a minor-league hitting coach. In 2022, he was in the big leagues helping the ‘Stros win the World Series.
Remember Mark Teixeira, the slugger who won a World Series in 2009 with the New York Yankees, made three All-Star Game appearances and won five Gold Gloves? He became a star from 2003-07 with the Texas Rangers to launch his 14-year MLB career.
He came back to Texas after retiring in 2016. Tuesday night, the 46-year-old was elected to Congress, defying the Blue Wave that rocked Lone Star State politics, running as a Trump-endorsed Republican in the 21st District that includes the I-35 corridor north of San Antonio into Austin.
As Paul Harvey used to say, “and now you know the rest of the story.”
Good day!
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com