Saint Earl’s Fire Burns : Though on the Bench in New Orleans, Campbell Has Retained His Dignity

Times change and heroes with them, and in few places as rapidly as New Orleans. These are heady days there, with the Saints having won three in a row and dreaming of an upset of the Raiders that would be an unprecedented No. 4.

Among the new heroes is Ellen Hendrick, a middle-aged fan who goes by the professional name of Macumba. She deals in voodoo, an obvious need of the Saints. She started casting spells on their behalf before the Tampa Bay game, No. 1 in the streak, and has been impossible to dislodge from Cajun airwaves since.

Among the old heroes is Earl Campbell, who has been benched.

Between the two, Macumba might have the better future. Campbell has been booed loudly. In the upset of the 49ers at San Francisco, which stands as the Saints’ high-water mark of the decade, he lost a fumble and juggled a pass twice before a 49er linebacker stepped in and intercepted.

That was his last start. Even though his old friend, Bum Phillips, is still in charge, Campbell appeared for only one play in last week’s victory over the Eagles, trotting in on third-and-one.

Here, at last, was a spot for the old Campbell power, right?

Wrong. The Saints play-faked and threw a pass, incomplete.

Campbell spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on his helmet on the sideline. He once was among the great runners ever to touch down in the National Football League, and a man who has carried himself with some dignity, so it wasn’t the prettiest thing you could ever see.

That being the case, it was at least handled with some sensitivity, more than the usual, “You starters take a step forward. Not so fast, Campbell.”

Phillips had told him that he was thinking of starting Wayne Wilson two days beforehand. Campbell said he didn’t argue or even disagree.

Said Saint fullback Hokie Gajan: “I didn’t think it was appropriate to walk up to him and ask, ‘Why aren’t you starting?’ I just left well enough alone. We’ve talked every day since. but I still haven’t asked him about it.”

A team official, asked a couple of days ago if Campbell would be available for an interview, said: “I don’t know. He’s been pretty media-shy in the best of times.”

Campbell, the down-home kid from Tyler, Tex., hasn’t been a hard guy with the press, more a disinterested one. Surprise, he’s more accessible in the worst of times than he was in his 1,500-yards-a-year days.

“No, I don’t think I’ve lost something,” he said from New Orleans. “I really don’t.

“The only thing is, I’ve matured a lot. You see some of the young players coming in and you ask yourself, ‘Did I used to be like that when I was young?’ ”

What are they like these days--louder, more outrageous?

“Oh yeah,” Campbell said.

What did Campbell ever have to say?

When he was a senior at Texas, Oklahoma Coach Barry Switzer called him the best football player he’d ever seen. Switzer then had Billy Sims on his own squad.

Switzer said: “Billy Sims is a great football player, but Earl Campbell isn’t human.”

Said the Raiders’ Lester Hayes: “I remember the Texas-Texas A&M; game in 1975. I was an outside linebacker (at A&M;). I hit him after a five-yard gain, and he got 15. It was like hitting a rubber wall. I think he has a 46-inch bottom.”

In fact, Campbell stands 5-11 and weighs 233 pounds, with thighs as big around as a man’s waist, 34 inches. As an NFL rookie, he broke open a Monday night game with an 81-yard touchdown run, sprinting away from the Miami Dolphins’ secondary.

That same season, in a game against the Rams, he head-butted Isiah Robertson in the chest so hard that Isiah’s agent must have considered suing for whiplash. The boys in NFL Films kept showing that carry over and counting the number of Rams it took to ride Campbell to earth. The sixth and seventh guys on the scene finally managed it, after Campbell had gone 12 yards and strewn the landscape with the bodies of their teammates

Phillips said Campbell is just in a slump now, that he’s had them before. In rookie camp with the Oilers, Campbell was so lost, they thought they’d made a mistake drafting him, Phillips said.

That’s one theory, anyway. Another is the one that has been around since Campbell got to the NFL: You can only take on Jack Lambert straight-up so many times before it catches up with you.

Phillips is, of course, in a bad place. For humanity, Phillips may be the game’s reigning prince, but his acquisition of Campbell represents one of the larger series of blunders ever made in the name of nostalgia.

Phillips took a 1-15 team to records of 4-12, 4-5 (strike season) and 8-8 in his first three Saint seasons. He had George Rogers, his first Saint draft pick, who had never gained fewer than 1,100 yards in a full season. But he wanted to play Bum Ball, which consists of getting more big ol’ boys and running them off tackle.

Last year, Phillips traded a No. 1 pick to Houston for Campbell.

Campbell and Rogers co-existed uneasily.

During the off-season, Phillips traded Rogers to Washington for a No. 1 draft choice who turned out to be linebacker Alvin Toles, now a reserve.

Then Phillips benched Campbell.

“The Friday before, he walked up and said, ‘I’m thinking of starting Wayne,’ ” Campbell said. “I said, ‘Hey Bum, I think you ought to start Wayne. He had a better game last week than I did.’

“He said, ‘I wanted you to know. I didn’t want to upset you.’ I’m a team player. I’m not an individual.

“The game has changed so much. Now there are defensive linemen just as fast as some running backs. Everybody passes so much. Including this team. We’re passing a lot. Maybe it’s because we lost three offensive linemen in one game.

“Yeah, you know it hurts. I don’t feel like I’m doing my bit right now. But a man has to hang in there and not give up. I plan on hanging in there. I think at the right time and the right place, everything is going to click, and I’ll turn this thing around. In the meantime, it doesn’t help to get down on yourself.”

This is no mean trick, when you’re 30, the tide is going out and people are booing. To them, he was just some guy in an Oiler uniform in his heyday, and this is no longer it.

“Surprised?” Campbell said. “Well, I’d never been booed before. I looked around. I thought somebody else was running out on the field.

“It’s kinda different playing football down here. They’ve never had a winner and they’re so hungry for one. People are a lot different in Texas. . . . But I’m not worrying about things like that. I’m an athlete. I put my best out on the field and I’ve always tried to be a gentleman. I’m not going to let some people I don’t know and probably never will know make me feel different.”

Good luck. Campbell has been up on stage singing with Waylon and Willie, so he’s probably heard the lyric about the sun not shining on the same doggie’s rear every day. Even if it is 46 inches.