NFL star knows growing up homeless as child shaped him into person he is today
Defensive end Calais Campbell makes $15 million a year playing football for the Jacksonville Jaguars and has earned $70 million over the course of his NFL career.
He’s coming off a season in which he was named the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year and led the surprising Jags to the AFC championship game.
Things are pretty great for Campbell these days — but it wasn’t always that way.
When he was 11, he and his family had to move into a homeless shelter in Denver.
His parents and their eight children slept in one bedroom, and Calais shared a bed with his three brothers for six months.
“All in the same space, all on top of each other,” he told ESPN in 2015.
Tuesday was National Siblings Day, and Campbell posted a photo of the brothers from that period on Instagram.
“This is a throwback to when we lived in a family homeless shelter… 8 of us in one room with a bunch of bunk beds… never needed money to have a good time!” he wrote. “As long as we had each other we had enough! #FamilyOverEverything.”
The post drew a strong response, with 5,000-plus likes and more than 50 comments. “You’re an inspiration!” one woman wrote.
Campbell, 31, later appeared on the NFL Network’s “NFL Total Access” and talked about his family’s struggles.
“It’s a part of my life, my history, and it really is part of the motivation to help me get to where I am today,” he said. “My family was very tight but we experienced a lot of hardships, living in a homeless shelter, being evicted, going around from house to house. Times were hard at times but we always stuck together and stayed strong.”
After six months at the shelter, Campbell’s father got a job and the family was able to move out.
He graduated from Denver’s South High School, where he amassed a Colorado state record 57 career sacks, and then enrolled at the University of Miami. Campbell was a dominant force with the Hurricanes, racking up 129 tackles, 39 tackles for loss, 19.5 sacks, seven passes defended and three forced fumbles in three years.
The Arizona Cardinals drafted him with in second round of the 2008 draft, and Campbell would go on to earn Pro Bowl honors twice during his time there.
The Jaguars signed him as a free agent last March on a four-year, $60 million contract, and he paid them back with a franchise record 12.5 sacks and first-team All-Pro honors.
In a follow-up Instagram post Thursday, Campbell said he hopes his story will inspire others facing difficult times.
“It’s something that definitely stays with me from time to time,” he said, “and just kind of gives me that satisfaction, like, knowing where I am today and how far I’ve come. …
“I want to be that representation that shows that the people who are going through hard times, especially kids who might live in a homeless shelter or families struggling, that if you put your head down and work real hard, good things can happen. You can become successful, be whatever you want to be.”
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