Jason Campbell’s star-crossed career took its cruelest turn last week.
On Saturday, he was the starting quarterback of a playoff contender. On Monday, he was undergoing surgery on his broken collarbone.
By Tuesday, Campbell was recovering in bed when an interesting press conference came on the television. Carson Palmer had been traded to Oakland. It was the first Campbell heard of it.
“I was halfway still on pain medicine,” Campbell told 95.7 this weekend. “It was kind of a moment of silence. My fiancée looked at me to see if I was gonna say something. There’s different things that go through your mind but you don’t want to fill your mind with those thoughts.”
Campbell spoke with Raiders coach Hue Jackson on Friday. He said Jackson offered encouragement and belief that Campbell could overcome this injury. But Campbell seems to understand his NFL future likely will be in another NFL uniform.
“As a player in this league, you can’t worry about the things that go on from a business side of it, the political side of it,” Campbell said. “You know what you’re worth, you know what you’ve done to help the franchise you’ve got here, put us in the position we’re in now.”