Jason Campbell, a former first-round pick of the Washington Redskins, recently spoke on his time in D.C.
Jason Campbell was a first-round pick of the Washington Redskins back in 2005. Now, Campbell is back in D.C., but not to play quarterback. Campbell is back as a special guest speaker at a local church for a car show. But for the first time since his departure after the 2009 season, Campbell opened up on his time in the nation’s capital.
In an interview with Deron Snyder of The Washington Times, Campbell said he enjoyed his time in Washington, however, not entirely for football reasons:
"The hard thing is the Redskins have a really big fan base and you fall in love with people in the D.C. area.That’s the part that makes you want to be there. Then there’s the football side of it. You have a good relationship with the guys who played before you. But the flip side is when you realize there’s a whole bunch of crazy going on."
Sound familiar, Redskin fans?
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Since owner Daniel Snyder bought the team before the 1999 season, the Redskins have become known for chaos. Whether it was chasing washed-up, high-profile busts in free agency, changing coaches like most change socks or even threatening to sue reporters or elderly folks, Snyder has never met a controversy he didn’t fully embrace.
Unfortunately for Campbell, he went through one of the strangest series of events — even for Snyder — in the 2009 season when Snyder and his former toady, Vinny Cerrato, brought in retired NFL coach Sherman Lewis from a bingo hall to call plays. And Lewis, nor former head coach Jim Zorn, knew Lewis was brought in to call plays until the week of his first game in Washington.
Campbell continued in his interview:
"That was really weird. He didn’t even know all the plays. It was just crazy. You could feel the animosity on the field. Lewis told me in all his years in football he had never seen a quarterback deal with so much chaos going on around him. It was a hard position for me to be in."
And that was Campbell’s Washington career in a nutshell. After that season, Snyder would fire Zorn and hire Mike Shanahan in another sweeping change that was supposed to resurrect the Redskins back to glory. We all know how that one ended.
Overall, Campbell spent five seasons in Washington, starting 52 games before being traded to the Oakland Raiders after the 2009 season. Campbell would go on to play five more seasons before retiring in 2014. It’s natural to wonder what could have been for Campbell in D.C. His mechanics weren’t great and he was an awkward fit for the West-Coast offense Zorn ran. However, Campbell had some good moments, especially in the 2007 and 2008 seasons.
Campbell himself is left to wonder if his time in Washington damaged his NFL career.
"“I just wonder if I stayed in one system, one team with one head coach and one coordinator, how far could I have gone.”"
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Consider Campbell’s career another casualty of Snyder’s ownership era. Interestingly enough, Campbell is back in Washington the same time that the Redskins’ current quarterback, Kirk Cousins, is battling Snyder for a long-term contract. Hopefully, for Cousins, his career with Washington ends on a more positive note than Campbell’s time did.