Football is god in Texas. It’s just one of those commonly known facts in the world. Even if you’re not from there, it’s uploaded into mind with movies and TV shows like Friday Night Lights or Varsity Blues. Imagine if there were one person who personified that football is god more than anyone and you got to meet that person and see that he’s real.
I’m talking about former Dallas Cowboys’ head coach Tom Landry. The legendary coach helmed the Cowboys from 1960 to 1988 and coached the team to two Super Bowl wins and an NFL championship. The man under the hat was a mythological being in the football world and you just understood that from birth.
So it’s not hard to believe that a kid named Dan Campbell from the small town of Clifton, Texas would idolize Landry like everyone else did. Now Campbell gets to be in the same shoes as Landry if only for one day a year. That day being Thanksgiving.
“I grew up watching it as a kid. I always remember watching those games and then the thought of being able to play on Thanksgiving is special and now to be able to coach in one of those. I grew up a Tom Landry fan. So, you know, coach Landry was awesome. Just to watch him on the sidelines and all the games that were won throughout his career. It’s special. It’s absolutely special.”
The interesting thing is that while Campbell idolized Landry, he never wanted to be a coach growing up. He said that he never even thought about it in fact. It was something he came to want much later in life after he had a taste of it.
Campbell would get a chance to do something that many fans in Texas would only dream about when he was in eighth grade. He got to meet Landry. The interaction was special. So special that when Campbell was drafted by the Giants in 1999, he received a piece of mail that he has in frame to this day.
“I met him when I was shoot, I think I was an eighth grader. I have a family member who he became friends with and so periodically I got to meet him. I was just a little runt and this was really just towards the end when he had retired. So that was that was pretty cool. It was pretty cool. And he actually sent me a letter after I got drafted by the Giants, because you know, he played there coached there. So I still have that. I’ve got it framed. It was one of those moments you never forget. I’ll never forget. I still remember where I was at and what he was dressed in where he came out. It was just you know, the whole thing is pretty cool.”
Campbell has a ways to go before he can become the legend that Landry is. But it all starts somewhere. For Campbell it was in eighth grade. For the next head coach out there, your moment might be tomorrow.