Parris Campbell: Injuries were 'story of my season' not my career

INDIANAPOLIS — In a game all about instincts, Parris Campbell had to fight to stifle his. 

The sharpness of the pain shot through him so quickly, the young Indianapolis Colts wide receiver didn’t have time to stop himself from reflexively grabbing at the source of his agony. 

But when his brain finally caught up to what was going on, Campbell immediately let go, stood up and tried to pretend as if nothing had happened. Incomplete pass. Everyone move on. 

Except, something had happened. Campbell had broken his foot. 

“Literally when it happened,” Campbell said of the Week 14 injury that ended his season, “I was on the ground, just thinking to myself, ‘Not again! Not again. I don’t want to do this again. Why does this keep happening to me?!’”

Campbell couldn’t stomach the thought of missing any more time. The 2019 second-round pick (No. 59 overall) already had missed so much of his rookie campaign with a balky hamstring, a sports hernia and a broken right hand that required surgery 

He wasn’t even a whole quarter into his return from the broken hand when an awkward takedown by Buccaneers linebacker Devin White left him in a world of pain. 

Campbell knew he had some “serious damage,” but he didn’t care. The agony of missing more time would be worse. After popping back to his feet, he limped slightly, then tried to jog back to the Colts huddle before he was called over to the sideline. Team trainers, not fooled by his courageous efforts, immediately approached him. 

Campbell kept up the ruse. 

“They were trying to evaluate it, and they kept asking me and kept asking me, ‘Are you good? Are you good?’” Campbell remembers. “I’m like, ‘I’m fine.’ And they couldn’t tell me no, because I was still out there running the routes. Probably not to the best of my ability (laughs), but I just kept telling them, ‘I’m good.’" 

Campbell caught three passes for 12 yards that day, far from his best day, but not bad considering he was playing on what he later called “pure emotion.”

“I was just so upset over the season I’d had thus far, in that moment, I was just like I can’t let this happen again. So I played with a broken foot.”

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After the game, Campbell finally let trainers look at his foot and they quickly deduced it was broken, though he says they didn’t tell him that right away.

Campbelll thinks they were just hoping to be wrong. Few people understand the frustrations of a season lost to injuries better than trainers. They wanted him to be OK almost as badly as he wanted it.

Unfortunately, he wasn't. X-rays confirmed what they initially feared: Campbell’s foot was broken, his rookie season over after seven injury-plagued games. 

Now, more than eight weeks removed from the injury that ended his frustrating rookie season, he says he's moved on to 2020, though he admits taking that step wasn't easy. 

“I was really, really hard on myself,” said Campbell, who has been rehabbing in Indianapolis but was in Los Angeles recently to talk to incoming rookies at the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl as part of his duties with trading card company Panini America. “I was beating myself up even though I couldn’t control what was going on. ... I was hurting physically, but it messes with your head. You get to thinking certain things about yourself. It can really be a dark path if you let it be.

"But my plan now is to take that disappointment with me going into the offseason, training and preparing for next year. Honestly, I think that just makes me more hungry.” 

So far this offseason, the Akron, Ohio, native hasn't been able to funnel that frustration into intense workouts. Not yet. Instead, he spend his days trapped within the all-too-familiar cycle of rest and rehabilitation. He doesn't anticipate being close to 100% until mid-February, though he was able to ditch his protective boot last week. 

Forced to relive it, Campbell still can't believe how many times his rookie season went off the rails. He'd never been through anything like it. He never lost significant time to injury in high school or at Ohio State. 

Durability was never an issue. 

And it still isn't, Campbell said. While he readily admits “injuries were the story of my season,” he also doesn’t believe there was anything he could have done to prevent them. He's not brittle. These injuries were flukes, he said. Nothing more. Now that the run of bad luck is behind him, he can set out to do what the Colts drafted him to do, taking solace in knowing the team hasn't lost its faith in him. 

During his year-end news conference Colts general manager Chris Ballard said his feelings about Campbell haven’t changed. As long as the young receiver does everything he’s supposed to this offseason to get back to full health, he expects the young speed merchant to provide the Colts offense that explosive element it so desperately needs. 

“We’re still encouraged by Parris,” Ballard said at the end of the season. “I think you all saw the potential. He misses most of the spring, but you saw it early in training camp, then you saw it in the Tennessee game, remember he catches the over (route) in the red zone where he runs away from the slot defender? Then he comes back in Pittsburgh (five catches, 53 yards) after only four or five days of practice, and you saw the explosive element."

While speed is the primary weapon in Campbell's arsenal, the Colts came away from 2019 impressed by another aspect of his game. At Ohio State, he was primarily deployed as a vertical threat and gadget player, creating questions about his ability to run a more complex route tree. 

Despite little time on the field, Campbell appeared to answer those questions. Colts coaches frequently highlighted Campbell's commitment to staying involved in the game plans and the evolving scheme while he was injured. Even in weeks he wasn't playing, Campbell could often be found sitting near Jacoby Brissett during meetings, picking his brain and looking over his shoulder to see what his quarterback was looking at. 

He asked a lot of questions wide receivers coach Kevin Patullo said, especially about how defenses were trying to disguise coverages.

Even with a lack of practical NFL knowledge, Campbell is a quick study, Patullo added, which is why they were able to move him around the offense so much. Against, Pittsburgh, after only a handful of practices, they had him run routes from three different positions. 

"He did a really good job," Patullo said. "You could see he was getting tired because he hadn’t been out there much, but he was still making plays and competing hard, blocking in the run game and doing everything we asked. It was fun. He was enjoying himself. It was good for him to get a taste of success, for him to know that, 'I just got to get healthy and get back out there, and when I do, I can do it again no problem.'" 

That's exactly what Campbell is thinking this offseason. And it's exactly what Ballard and coach Frank Reich told Campbell during his exit interview.

"They told me just make sure to take care of myself and take care of my body," Campbell said. "And if I do that, I’m going to be premier part of the offense." 

Follow IndyStar Colts Insider Jim Ayello on Twitter: @jimayello.