Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell has a well-earned reputation for taking on-field risks.
That does not mean, of course, that risks of a different kind should follow him home.
According to WJBK-TV in Detroit, Michigan, Campbell had to move his family of four out of their $4.5 million home because, as the coach told Crane’s Detroit Business, “people figured out where we lived when we lost.”
The doxing occurred late in the 2023-24 season after the Lions dropped a 20-19 heartbreaker to the Dallas Cowboys.
Trailing by seven points with 23 seconds remaining in that game, Detroit scored a touchdown and then gambled on a 2-point try to take the lead.
Campbell’s gamble appeared to pay off when the Lions converted the 2-point try.
A controversial penalty on a Detroit offensive lineman, however, wiped out the conversion. Dallas held on for the victory.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” an irate Campbell said after the game.
Apparently, some unhinged Lions fans had trouble accepting the loss or the coach’s decision.
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After someone leaked Campbell’s home address to the public, pranksters sent contractors to the house to make unnecessary repairs, WJBK reported.
Then, the harassment intensified following Detroit’s gut-punch of a loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship game.
One win away from the franchise’s first trip to the Super Bowl, the Lions held a 24-7 halftime lead.
Thanks to a second-half collapse, however, Detroit fell to San Francisco, 34-31.
During that collapse, Campbell twice tried and failed to convert on fourth down inside 49ers territory.
Had the coach opted to kick field goals in those instances, the Lions conceivably could have won the game.
Instead, thanks to continued harassment at their home, the family had to file police reports, WJBK reported.
A former tight end who played 10 NFL seasons with the Lions, Cowboys and New York Giants, the 48-year-old Campbell took over as Detroit’s head coach in 2021.
Since then, he has amassed won-loss records of 3-13-1, 9-8 and 12-5.
In other words, Campbell has helped turn one of the NFL’s worst teams into one of its best.
He has done that, in part, by taking calculated risks on the field. The ones he took against Dallas and San Francisco did not pay off, but others have.
Evidently, some fans could not forgive him for the ones that failed.
Thus, he had to move.
Fortunately, the Campbell family has already found a new home. In fact, their old home sold within 24 hours, thanks to realtor Ashley Crain of Crain Homes.
“I feel happy for them that they can have that privacy,” Crain said. “And I would hope all the fans out there love him enough and they give him that privacy, and their family too.”
Obviously, we all deserve privacy and a place of our own. No one likes doxing, open borders or any other criminal activity that threatens Americans in their homes.
Here’s hoping Campbell enjoys his new home — and that his next high-risk gamble pays off on the field.
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