Earl Campbell Days From Texas Football

We’re Earl Campbell days from Texas Football. That is a beautiful thing.

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I hope you’re celebrating by running over your kids in the backyard the way Earl would have, putting in a nice pinch of Skoal or “listening to a little picking” like DKR and Campbell used to do together in South Austin.

So why does Earl connect so deeply with so many who never even saw him play live? It’s deeper than the Heisman Trophy or the NFL MVP.

I’ll tell you why he resonates with me.

Earl is, in many ways, almost a biblical or superhero-type figure. The way he’s talked about by coaches such as Barry Switzer is one of awestruck reverence.

“Earl is the greatest player who ever suited up. He’s the greatest football player I’ve ever seen.”

People who should hate Earl, don’t.

They can’t.

I’ve written about it before, but I grew up in a house divided. My parents didn’t argue much, but when they did, it was about football. And it was furious. Although my dad didn’t like the Longhorns, he loved Earl. He still does. He moved to Austin in the 70s and rarely missed the opportunity to walk from his house through Hyde Park down to Memorial Stadium to snag a general admission ticket and watch Earl obliterate poor opposing defenders.

Earl unites. And I believe a lot of healing was done through his presence at UT. Although he wasn’t the first Black player, or even the first great one, he was the first transcendent Longhorn. Earl transcends the University of Texas in a way few can or do.

From Asher Price’s piece in The Alcalde:

“I liked what I saw, what I heard,” he said of Texas. “The campus looked beautiful, and the people were friendly. They offered to help me get my education. Texas did not buy me. Blacks are through selling themselves, or at least I’m not going to sell myself. Texas offered me everything legal, and there was none of this stupid talk of cars and money.”

And he connects the generations. The first way my son and I connected over Texas Football was through Earl Campbell. I got tired of talking about Transformers with him when he was two, so I showed him a video of Earl. Soon we were in the backyard acting out Earl’s runs, and my son couldn’t get enough of Earl highlights or the Longhorns. That was the first seed planted for my book, The Longhorn Alphabet: Texas Football A to Z. Me and a two-year-old, finding common ground and a shared love of The Tyler Rose.

He’s a piece of Texas culture—Texana. When people think of the laid-back, proud, optimistic, and kind virtues of a Texan, I think Earl embodies those things. He’s just as comfortable hanging with Willie Nelson and DKR as he is with the common folk.

But on the field, he was one of the most punishing players who ever lived. How do you reconcile that violence on the field with the gentle soul off it? In some ways, that’s how I see Earl as a superhero—almost like a withered Christian Bale as Batman in The Dark Knight Rises.

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Earl donned the cape, put on the Longhorn burnt orange and Oiler blue, and literally sacrificed his body for his teams and teammates. Thankfully, football has come a long way since then, and hopefully few players will have to know the pain Earl has had to feel off the field.

Earl is a bona fide Texas treasure. Nobody can be like him on the field, but we should all try to be more like him off it.