Campbell preparing to be No. 2
Jeff Walcoff, Staff Writer 12.28.2006
On Christmas Eve, Lang Campbell was in Virginia watching the Browns face the Buccaneers on TV when he saw former teammate and friend Derek Anderson walk off the field after sustaining an injury.
Campbell had been watching most of his former team's games at friend's houses or at sports bars. He had been expecting to join his new team, Arena Football's Austin Wranglers, in February. </P>
But Anderson's separated shoulder combined with Charlie Frye's bruised wrist left just one healthy quarterback on the roster in Ken Dorsey. </P>
Dorsey will start his first game as a Brown in the season finale at Houston.</P>
Within two hours of Anderson's injury Campbell received a call. And this Sunday, just a week after he was on the couch watching the team play, the William & Mary grad who has never played an NFL snap could be one play from making his league debut.</P>
Campbell has spent the past two seasons in training camp with the Browns but has never spent a week on the team's active roster. He was released during the latter parts of the preseason each year. </P>
Campbell said he might've anticipated a phone call in a situation like this a year ago after his first training camp stint with the Browns, but this year he wasn't expecting to be summoned.</P>
Campbell said the call was a nice and unexpected Christmas present. </P>
"I wasn't expecting a call especially this late in the season but I'm happy to be here," he said Wednesday. "I missed some of my family Christmas, but it was worth it." </P>
Campbell is now on a crash course to get ready for Sunday's game, where he'll likely be the No. 2 quarterback unless Frye is healthy enough to serve as a backup. He reviewed his old notes on the flight to Cleveland and has been studying ever since. </P>
He said he hopes the best for Dorsey, but he still has to be prepared if he needs to play.</P>
"The good thing is that, since this is the only (system) I've been in, it's pretty much just reviewing sessions," Campbell said. "They've kept a lot of the same things in and have simplified some things so it's a matter of reviewing and cramming for a final exam."</P>
He was originally signed by the Browns as an undrafted free agent on April 29, 2005. During his first training camp with the club, he played in two preseason games, completing 1-of-3 passes for 17 yards. He was released on Aug. 28.</P>
Campbell was signed for the second time by the Browns on Jan. 6, 2006 and was allocated to NFL Europe. He started all 10 games for the Berlin Thunder, totaling 1,264 passing yards with 10 touchdowns and 4 interceptions on 116-of-204 passing.</P>
During his second camp with the team he appeared in one preseason game, connecting on 8-of-14 passes for 77 yards with a touchdown and an interception. He was released on Aug. 28.</P>
Campbell was a collegiate sensation as a two-year starter at William & Mary. He threw for 6,494 passing yards on 465-for-724 passing with 54 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He was named the 2004 Atlantic 10 Offensive Player of the Year and was awarded the Walter Payton Award, given each season to the top player in Division I-AA football. His team won a share of the Atlantic10 title and made its first ever appearance in the NCAA I-AA semifinals.</P>
"I'm here just to help out Ken any way I can as far as when he comes off the field telling him what I saw and if anything needs to be done," Campbell said of his role this weekend. "I have to stay ready and mentally in the game so that if I do have to go in I'm not caught unaware."</P>
ANOTHER DEBUT?--Sunday may also mark the NFL debut of Browns rookie offensive lineman Rob Smith. Starting guards Joe Andruzzi (knee) and Cosey Coleman (ankle) are questionable for Sunday's game. Neither practiced Wednesday. </P>If one cannot start, veteran Lennie Friedman will take the missing player's place. If both cannot play, Smith will enter the lineup.
"I'll definitely be nervous until that first play," he said. "But after that initial hit it's just football. You're not thinking about that, you're just thinking about the guy across from you." </P>
Smith was one of the team's most highly-touted undrafted players coming into the season. </P>
He played in 33 games including 24 starts at Tennessee. In 2005, he was named a team co-captain and voluntarily moved from starting left guard to center after injuries troubled the unit.</P>
Smith was on the Browns' practice squad until Nov. 28 when he was moved to the active roster. He has been inactive in three of the four games since and did not play at Baltimore on Dec. 17.</P>
"I'm going to be paying extra attention and taking notes," Smith said. "After practice I'll be back in the film room. I'll be studying my notes and making sure any mistakes I make are because they're the better man, not because I didn't put enough time in."</P>
FROM ONE TO ANOTHER--Browns long snapper Ryan Pontbriand said Wednesday he can sympathize with the Bengals' Brad St. Louis, whose wide snap on an extra point during the final moments of the team's 24-23 loss to Denver Sunday may have cost the team the game and, subsequently, a 2006 playoff berth. </P>
"I have a lot of respect for him because it was a wet game and bad weather and he could've made a lot of excuses but he just said he had a bad snap," Pontbriand said. "It's a hard pill to swallow. It makes me sick just talking about it."</P>
Pontbriand cited an all-too-common theme for long snappers: They're seldom noticed unless it's for an often-game-changing mistake.</P>
"It's guaranteed that you will be unnoticed and probably unappreciated and the one time you do get noticed is for a bad reason," he said. "Just like a guy who drops a pass or throws an interception, you have to let it slide and think about something else. If you hang onto it you're just going to have another one."</P>
Pontbriand said the play reminded him of the bad snap by the Giants' Trey Junkin during a 2002 Wild Card playoff game between the Giants and 49ers. The 19-year veteran bounced a snap to holder Matt Allen, which Allen picked up and attempted to throw. The game ended in a 39-38 win for the 49ers.</P>
Ironically, it was the Giants' trouble at long snapper and the retirement of Junkin that paved the way for the Giants to sign former Browns snapper Ryan Kuehl. Pontbriand was drafted that spring to repalce Kuehl.</P>
QUICK HITS--Tight end Kellen Winslow will enter Sunday's finale ranked seventh in the AFC with 78 receptions. He is seven catches ahead of the Chiefs' Tony Gonzalez for the NFL's tight ends receptions title for 2006. He also needs six catches to tie Kevin Johnson (2001) for the third-most receptions in a season in team history...The Reliant Stadium roof is expected to be open for Sunday's game in Houston...The Texans are looking for their sixth win of the season Sunday, which would tie with 2004 for the most in the franchise's five-year history.</P>
