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Bucs' Campbell hoping to make most of second chance

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By ROY CUMMINGS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 28, 2009

Updated: 05/29/2009 06:00 am

TAMPA - Many fans simply shrugged their shoulders upon learning the Bucs had signed former Vikings wideout Kelly Campbell last February. Campbell's reaction was a little more emotional.

"I cried," Campbell said Thursday. "I really did."

Being released from exile will do that to you. It will bring you to tears, especially when it's the latest in a long line of life-altering events, which Campbell's signing on Feb.23 was.

"I'm a changed man," Campbell said. "I've learned my lessons."

The Bucs sure hope so, because even Campbell, who showed so much promise as a deep threat for the Vikings early in his career, will tell you he's always struggled to outrun his mistakes.

Two stand out. The first resulted in Campbell's arrest on Feb. 24, 2005, near the campus of his alma mater, Georgia Tech, on charges of possession of a stolen handgun and marijuana.

The other resulted in his arrest, also in Atlanta, on July 3, 2007, on a marijuana and ecstasy possession charge. Though he avoided jail time in both instances, Campbell sort of wound up in prison anyway.

Released by the Vikings after the first arrest and by the Dolphins two days after the second, Campbell wound up playing his first meaningful football in four years last season for the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League.

"It was [a humbling experience]," Campbell, 28, said of his CFL stint. "The CFL had been after me for years, but each year I turned them down because I considered myself to be an NFL player."

The hardest part about playing in Canada, Campbell said, was watching NFL games and constantly seeing young receivers making their mark for teams he knew he could play for.

"Watching those other receivers, I just told myself, 'That should be me,'" Campbell said. "And so I just decided that I was going to do what I had to do in the CFL to get back here and show I can play."

Campbell achieved that objective, catching 54 passes for 1,223 yards and seven touchdowns for the Eskimos last year. But neither those numbers nor his eye-popping average of 22.6 yards per catch earned a return ticket to the NFL.

It was only after the case linking Campbell to the marijuana and ecstasy possession charges was dropped that someone in the NFL agreed to take a chance on him again. Even then, teams weren't necessarily lining up to sign him.

The Bucs, he said, were the only team that worked him out this past winter. And because they were also the one team that showed some support for him during his latest ordeal, he agreed to sign.

The Bucs' expectations aren't great, but they didn't have great expectations for Antonio Bryant either. Bryant became their top wideout in 2008 after coming out of his own NFL exile. General manager Mark Dominik and Pro Personnel Director Doug Williams were willing to take another chance on Campbell.

"That's actually one of the things that Mark Dominik and Doug Williams talked to me about when they signed me," Campbell said. "I'm kind of in the same position as Antonio Bryant. He had some off-field issues and he had to come back and show that he's a good man and that he can play ball and that the field is where he's supposed to be. And his [example] is the one that I want [to follow].

"Like him, I just want to be quiet, do what I'm supposed to do, stay out of trouble, work hard and try to get on that 53-man roster."

That roster is fast becoming a realistic possibility for Campbell. He's one of a handful of receivers who have impressed the coaches during the early stages of the Bucs' offseason workout program.

"Kelly Campbell, Dexter Jackson, Cortez Hankton, they've all stepped up," Bucs coach Raheem Morris said. "And Kelly is fighting and competing. You see elite speed with him, a guy that can get downfield and make plays for you. He's a guy that's not afraid. You just hope he can take it over to the pads, because that's what we have to see."

Campbell is ready to show them. After all, he's seen the other side of life as a pro football player and didn't like it. In fact, he said, it helped change his outlook on the game and even his life.

"It's never been my talent that's kept me off the field," he said. "It's always been the off-field issues. But that's all behind me now. I feel like God has opened up another door for me now and so I'm looking forward."

Reporter Roy Cummings can be reached at (813) 259-7979.

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