The extraordinarily large man wearing a black T-shirt on the 16th Street Mall was just another person having a late-afternoon cellphone conversation Saturday.
Except the call recipient was Calais Campbell, the former Denver South football and basketball superstar. The Arizona Cardinals had just ended a 4 1/2-hour wait to make the Miami defensive end their second-round draft pick, No. 50 overall.
“They wanted to make sure they had me on the line. I talked to the head coach, the owner, the general manager,” said Campbell, a 6-foot-8, 282-pound sack artist whose hopes waxed and waned all day with every Washington Redskins pick. The Cardinals called him while the Philadelphia Eagles were on the clock, cutting in front of the Redskins’ second pick of the round.
“They told me they wanted me to come in and compete for the starting job,” he said.
Campbell had a secret. Minutes before the call came, he plugged it into a charger on a wall at his private party upstairs at the ESPN Zone.
After clutching the phone all day on vibrate mode and checking every five or six seconds while alternately texting and IMing friends across the country, he feared the battery would die before the call came.
He left the noisy party to head downstairs, whispering “Arizona” to his former South High School coach, Ryan Mullaney.
Campbell was nowhere to be found in the room with 30 friends and relatives when his name first flashed on the ESPN screen. A deafening cheer went up and the celebrating began, only to renew when he returned to the party. The first hug recipient was his mom, Nateal Campbell. Then he hugged his five brothers.
His older sister Keyonne, who organized the watch party and made the family T-shirt with her brother’s image, burst into tears.
As Mullaney said to Nateal Campbell: “I know someone is smiling in heaven right now.” On the left sleeve of every T-shirt was the inscription “Dedicated to Charles Campbell a.k.a Dad.”
The family patriarch passed away Thanksgiving weekend of Calais’ senior year in high school.
Charles Campbell’s presence was felt throughout the watch party room from the time the family gathered at 12:30 p.m. for the 1 p.m. draft start. The Miami star had been projected as high as the 21st pick by Washington and as low as the middle of the second round.
The first disappointment of the day came when Washington traded down and out of the first round.
Through the day, he heard from Miami coaches that Seattle and San Francisco were interested. He had a pained expression when Seattle took USC defensive end Lawrence Jackson. ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. agreed, giving the pick a “C.”
“I’m pretty cool about it. I know it’s a blessing just to play in the NFL,” Campbell said, barely taking his eyes off the cellphone while he waited. He knew the phone should ring long before the TV announcement.
The women bonded with Sherri Gonzales, mother of Broncos linebacker D.J. Williams.
“So far they are doing a great job,” said Gonzales, who only had to wait for the first round’s 17th pick when her son was called four years ago.
The only first-round cheering was for Campbell’s Miami teammate, safety Kenny Phillips, the final pick in the first round. Phillips went to the New York Giants.
Campbell was happy to see Colorado linebacker Jordon Dizon go to the Detroit Lions in the second round at No. 45 overall.
“He should be good there. We hung around together at the NFL combine,” Campbell said.
Then his call came at 5:48, a lesson in draft real time as opposed to ESPN time. The announcement didn’t come for at least 10 minutes.
As Campbell returned to the party to celebrate with his loved ones, he gave a youngster a very important job. Watch the cellphone for the media call.
