Calais Campbell reflects on his long NFL career

Calais Campbell may be nearing 40 years old, but he still believes he has something left to give the game, and the Ravens clearly agree. During his appearance on The Lounge podcast, Campbell reflected on being one of the last active players remaining from the 2008 NFL Draft class and what it means to still be playing meaningful football all these years later. For Campbell, longevity was never about chasing records or simply hanging around the league.

It was about continuing to earn the opportunity to play at a high level year after year. “I’ll say that I feel accomplished, you know. I mean I never really had aspirations to play a long time.

I just wanted to play football and I wanted to love playing football… I just wanted to do it well enough that people wanted me to play. And I guess when I think about it, it’s cool to still be wanted. There’s a lot of people out there who want to play that can’t get a job.

I’ve always tried to play at a level where if I want to play again, I can. I keep wanting to play so I keep playing. ” That mentality is a major reason why the Ravens valued bringing Campbell back to Baltimore for another season.