Former Raiders defensive end Joe Campbell was found dead at age 68 after going for a hike in Florida on Sunday.
The former Super Bowl winner is believed to have suffered a cardiac incident, his brother Patrick told Delaware Online.
The defenseman was drafted with the seventh overall pick by the New Orleans Saints in 1977 and went on to suit up for the Raiders and Buccaneers during his five-year career in the NFL.
He played three full seasons with the Saints before being traded midseason to the Raiders and also played for the Bucs in 1981.
But it was his stint with the Raiders he is most well known for, having been a member of the Oakland team that won Super Bowl XV in the 1980 season.
Joe Campbell, member of the Raiders’ Super Bowl XV-winning team, has died age 68
The defensive end was drafted with the seventh overall pick by the New Orleans Saints in 1977
The 1980 Raiders team was the first wild card team to win a Super Bowl, rounding off its fairytale run with a 27-10 win over the Eagles in the big game.
‘The Raiders Family mourns the passing of Joe Campbell, who played 13 games over two seasons with the Silver and Black,’ the Raiders said in a statement Wednesday.
‘The thoughts and prayers of the entire Raider Nation are with the Campbell family at this time.’
Rep. Burgess Owens, a former Raider, tweeted ‘A teammate I was blessed to play and win with. Joe, RIP brother.’
Campbell survived a collision with a pick-up truck while cycling in Pennsylvania in 2007. However, he sustained a fractured skull and his left forearm had to be surgically reattached.
The accident left him in a coma for more than six weeks, breathing with the help of a respirator.
Campbell was also left with memory problems but, despite his challenges, he still remembered his championship winning season.
‘I got traded from New Orleans to Oakland and I get to come back to New Orleans to play in the Super Bowl against the Eagles,’ Campbell said in 2016, via Delaware Online.
‘I guess it was meant to be. I played against the team I grew up with. That’s the best memory I have of the Super Bowl – This was supposed to happen. I got traded from New Orleans, I came back to New Orleans and I played against the team I grew up with. I’m happy to have just been in the Super Bowl, to be part of that history.’
He lived with his brother Patrick and his brother’s wife, Dianna, in Wilmington, Delaware for more than a year after the incident before moving to Florida in 2010.
Campbell is survived by his two daughters Daryn Garnant and Micah Mirigian, his brother Patrick, and his three grandchildren Jack Campbell Garnant, Evelyn Mirigian, and Timothy Mirigian.
Before his NFL career, Campbell had been a standout at Salesianum School in Delaware, helping the team win the state title in 1972.
He went on to play collegiately at Maryland becoming an All-American.
Campbell celebrated the Raiders’ 27-10 Super Bowl win over the Eagles in January 1981
‘Everybody looked up to him,’ longtime friend and former Sallies teammate Dennis Kelly told Delaware Online.
‘Everybody loves a winner, and Joe crossed that threshold into being a pro athlete.’
Cowboys legend Randy White, a teammate of Campbell’s at Maryland, also told the outlet: ‘Great football player and he was a great guy, too. You get news like this, it sets you back. … I’ll remember him as a long, lean guy from Delaware who came in there and dominated at that defensive end position.’
Campbell, who hailed from Wilmington, Delaware, was enshrined into the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame in 1992.
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