Cards’ Campbell: We want to do our part to make a difference

One of the most riveting moments of the Amazon series “All or Nothing” came in the final episode when, while preparing for the NFC Championship Game against the Carolina Panthers, injured defensive back Tyrann Mathieu gave a speech to his teammates.

Imploring his teammates to play hard, he noted that they were deserving of being on the field in such a big game and added that they should do everything for each other.

“At the end of the day that’s all we’ve got,” he said. “This is how people are going to remember us. We ain’t no (expletive) presidents and (expletive). This is how people are going to remember us, dawg, so why not go hard for this (expletive).”

It was a speech solely designed to fire everyone up for a football game, and Mathieu’s point about not being presidents or anything like that makes sense. Yet, while everyone in that room was a football player and at that time focused on what they could do on the field, that does not mean all of them only care about football.

And during times like these, where it seems like the news is dominated by one social issue after another, it is difficult for someone not to have an opinion, and with opinions come the chance for misunderstandings and conflict.

Conflict within any workplace is never a good thing, and the same would hold true for an NFL locker room. Speaking with CBS Sports Radio’s Tiki and Tierney Wednesday, Cardinals defensive lineman and captain Calais Campbell said there are times when serious social issues do come up among in conversations with teammates.

“A little bit,” he said. “When you’re in the locker room with the guys you definitely have a lot of time, so we talk about all kinds of different things that matter. There are some big issues in front of us right now and so we try to communicate them, figure out what we can do and what our part is.

“It’s kind of an unknown; we don’t really know how to approach it the right way, so we can discuss it all the time in the locker room and try to figure out how we can do our part to make a difference.”

The Cardinals, like many other teams, are big on trying to make a difference in their community. Charity events are the norm, with Campbell being one of the team’s most prominent givers. But even for someone like him or any other notable person who tries to help others, there could always be a sense that while good deeds, they are never enough.

But no matter what’s going on in the world, they will keep trying.

“There are a lot of guys in the locker room who are good, quality guys, so we all have our vision, our passions, things we want to do outside of football,” he said. “The hard part, though, is just figuring out how to do it properly and still get our job done because football is No. 1 for us when we’re in the locker room.

“But it’s definitely one of these things where it’s an interesting subject and something we’re going to have to continue to work on and figure out how we can make a difference.”

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