Super Bowl Champ Found Dead After Hike
Here is what you need to know about his life, death, and the legacy he left behind.
Super Bowl champion Joe Campbell, 68, has died. The former Raider played defensive end and was part of the 1980 team that won Super Bowl XV. Over the years, he survived near-death experiences. However, he was found dead on a hike in Florida on Sunday. Here is what you need to know about his cause of death and the legacy he leaves behind.
According to his brother Patrick, the former NFL star was found dead in Florida on Sunday after he went for a hike. He says that he likely suffered a cardiac incident, he told Delaware News Journal.
Campbell attended Salesianum School in Delaware, where he helped the team win the 1972 state title. "Everybody looked up to him," longtime friend and former Sallies teammate Dennis Kelly told the outlet. "Everybody loves a winner, and Joe crossed that threshold into being a pro athlete."
Campbell went on to play college football at Maryland. While at the big university, he was an All-American. "Great football player, and he was a great guy, too," Cowboys legend Randy White, a teammate of Campbell's at Maryland, told Delaware Online. "You get news like this, it sets you back. … I'll remember him as a long, lean guy from Delaware who came in there and dominated at that defensive end position."
In the 1977 draft, he was selected seventh overall by the Saints. He went on to play for the Raiders and Buccaneers during his five-year career.
In 1980 the Raiders became the first wild-card team to win the Super Bowl. During the big game, they beat the Eagles 27-10. "The thoughts and prayers of the entire Raider Nation are with the Campbell family at this time," the Raiders said in a statement Wednesday.
Campbell was involved in a 2007 collision with a pick-up truck while bicycling. He suffered a fractured skull and was in a coma for six months, losing some of his memory. "I'm enjoying life, yes I am," he told Delaware Online in 2016. "I got traded from New Orleans to Oakland, and I get to come back to New Orleans to play in the Super Bowl against the Eagles," Campbell said in 2016. "I guess it was meant to be. I played against the team I grew up with. That's the best memory I have of the Super Bowl – This was supposed to happen. I got traded from New Orleans, I came back to New Orleans, and I played against the team I grew up with. I'm happy to have just been in the Super Bowl, to be part of that history."
Campbell leaves behind two daughters, a brother, and three grandchildren.
