Cardinals defensive end Calais Campbell, who suffered a knee injury on a chop block from Broncos tight end Julius Thomas on Sunday, says there’s a reason defensive linemen hate those blocks.
“I feel like if my foot had got stuck in the ground, it could have been a lot worse,” Campbell told the Cardinals’ website.
It’s ended careers before. If my foot was stuck in the ground it could have put me out for a couple of years and this game is not about that kind of stuff. It’s not about getting injured. You want the best players on the field so we can perform, and play the game we love at a high level for the fans who pay their hard-earned money to watch. It kind of sucks I get taken off the field and have to miss a couple weeks on a play that could have been easily avoided. If I get chipped on that play, he still does a good job limiting my ability to rush the passer. We come back the next play and compete again.”
But while Campbell is disappointed to miss a few games with a sprained MCL, he didn’t express the same level of anger toward Thomas that Cardinals coach Bruce Arians showed. Arians called Thomas’s hit the dirtiest he’s ever seen and called for the NFL to suspend Thomas, but Campbell said he’s not interested in getting involved in that argument.
“I’ll let everyone else debate whether it was illegal or not,” Campbell said.
Campbell said he expects to deal with knee pain for the rest of the season, but he hopes to be back in plenty of time to help the Cardinals make a run to the playoffs. For now, however, the Cardinals are going to struggle without one of their best players.