Joe Campbell, Super Bowl Champion Defensive End, Dead at 68

Joe Campbell, a former NFL defensive end who won a Super Bowl with the Oakland Raiders (now Las Vegas Raiders), has died. He was 68 years old. According to the Delaware News Journal, Campbell was found dead after going on a hike and likely suffered a cardiac incident in Tavares, Florida, said his brother, Patrick. 

Campbell was selected in the first round by the New Orleans Saints in the 1977 NFL Draft. In his first three seasons with the team, Campbell started 26 of 40 games and recorded eight sacks. Early in the 1980 season, Campbell was traded to the Raiders and helped the team win the Super Bowl against the Philadelphia Eagles. He then split time with the Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers to close out his NFL career. 

Campbell played college football at the University of Maryland and notched 17 sacks in his career. He played high school football at Salesianum School in Wilmington, Delaware. "Everybody looked up to him," longtime friend and former high school teammate Dennis Kelly told the Delaware News Journal. "Everybody loves a winner, and Joe crossed that threshold into being a pro athlete."

Former Dallas Cowboys defensive lineman and Pro Football Hall of Famer Randy White was saddened to learn the news of Campbell. The two played at Maryland, and White's younger brother Eric is a former teammate of Campbell's. "Great football player and he was a great guy, too," White said.  "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."

Once Campbell's football career was over, he became an educator. But the last 16 years have been challenging for him, suffering a fractured skull, brain damage and his left forearm had to be surgically attached after getting into a head-on collision with a pickup truck in 2007 while riding his bicycle in Pennsylvania. In 2021, Campbell was named Delaware's 100 most-accomplished athletes by Delaware Online/The News Journal. And in an interview with The News Journal in 2016, Campbell talked about his time in the NFL.

 "Playing in the NFL isn't what it's cracked up to be," he said. "When they start paying you to play I didn't like it as much. As soon as you're not performing, you're out of there. It was a nightmare in New Orleans. I think I got the attitude that they didn't care and, if they didn't care, I'm not going to put forth the effort to perform."