Campbell proud of sobriety, Royal's role in his life

Next week will bring two momentous milestones for Earl Campbell, the Tyler Rose.

Tuesday, Campbell will attend a memorial service in Austin for the late University of Texas football coach Darrell Royal, who Campbell says saved his life by plucking him from the rose fields of Smith County and setting him on the path to stardom in college and the NFL.

Friday, he will celebrate three years of sobriety from the mixture of beer and painkillers that, combined with the physical toll of 14 seasons of high school, college and pro football, had slowed his walk to a crawl and his life to a standstill.

Both milestones were very much on Campbell's mind Friday as he addressed the fall luncheon of the Council on Alcohol and Drugs Houston at the Hilton Americas.

Neither, however, was a source for depression. As Campbell talked about Royal's leadership and friendship, he also celebrated his sobriety.

And, for good measure, as he croaked his way with a sore throat through his remarks, Campbell informed his audience about an East Texas home remedy with which most were most likely unfamiliar: his late mother Ann Campbell's "cow chip tea," a concoction of dried cow manure, boiled and strained through several layers of cloth, and castor oil, that Campbell said will cure what ails you.

His remarks, his demeanor and the laughter he drew from listeners were celebrations of a new outlook and new energy that had been absent prior to his 2009 entry into an addiction rehab program.

"I really enjoy life," he said. "I'm having a great time. ... I'm having so much fun now. I thought I was having a good time being Earl Campbell when I was doing all that. But when I got sober, now I really have a lot of fun."

Campbell said his wife, Reuna, encouraged him to get help, but he only agreed to do so in 2009 at the urging of his sons, Christian and Tyler.

"The thing that got me was when they said, 'Dad, did you see what happened to Michael Jackson? You keep doing this, that's going to happen to you,'" Campbell said.

Even so, he said he wasn't prepared to compare his mixture of beer and pills to other addicts who abused cocaine or heroin. It took 44 days in a 28-day rehab stint, he said, to face his addiction and to accept the challenge of living sober.

"Ever since that day, I've tried to be different," he said. "I know I'm a better father. I try to be a better husband. I'm a better man, and I pray to God every night to be a better Christian. I pray every day and every night that I can help another alcohol and drug addict like me."

Tyler Campbell, who works with his father's food service company in Austin, said Campbell is living a message that he taught his children.

"We learned that we're all human and all vulnerable to mistakes, and it's not about the mistake you make, it's about how you go about trying to fix the mistake and now allowing it to happen again," he said.

"My dad faltered, but we stood by him as a family, and it's good to hear his story. We knew we would be able to impact people. I think for the first time, he is really enjoying life."

Campbell has had knee replacement surgery and requires a walker, but neither he nor his sons express regret about the punishment he took playing football.

"My dad knew he was blessed with athletic ability," Tyler Campbell said. "He played the game for what it was worth and knew it wasn't going to be for long. That's why he gave it everything he had on every down."

Many of those lessons about facing responsibility, Campbell said, were learned during the three years he played for Royal at Texas.

"He took an 18-year-old kid from Tyler, Texas, and brought him to the university," Campbell said. "It was right in the middle of me learning to be a man. I'm not sure I've got it all yet, but I'm trying.

"He taught me so much: how to be a father, how to try to be a husband, how to do education and be successful, and I learned all that from him."

As a child of the Depression, he said, Royal could relate to a poor East Texas family of the 1970s.

"When he came to visit us in Tyler, my mother said to him she wasn't proud of that little house she raised us in, and he said, "Ann, you don't need to be ashamed,'" Campbell said. "My mom said, 'It's not the best,' and he said, "It's a hell of a lot better than where I grew up in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl.'"

Campbell visited Royal twice in the days before his death Wednesday, and he spoke Thursday with Royal's widow, Edith. Both, he said, had been supportive during his rehab efforts.

"I owe all this to my family and to the good Lord and to a lot of great friends," he said. "Anything I've set out to accomplish, I've been able to do that. And when my boys talked to me about getting help, I accepted it. I didn't want to at first. I thought I was bigger than that. But after I looked at myself in the mirror and decided this was what I needed, I got with it."

In addition to his work with Earl Campbell Foods, Campbell is working with former HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg on a documentary, produced in association with NFL Films, that will air in December on the NBC Sports Network.