Cards: ProSet 1991, StarPics 1991, Action Packed Rookies 1991, Score 1991.
Acquired: TTM 2015, C/o Work
Sent: 7/30 Received: 10/10 (72 days)
A second round pick by the Philadelphia Eagles out of NC State, Jesse Campbell was a 3 year starter and 1st Team All ACC Member for the Wolfpack, notching 7 interceptions, 187 tackles, and 5 sacks over his career. A fearsome hitter, Campbell also forced an impressive 15 fumbles punishing receivers and runners alike with a linebacker’s abandon. He’d sustain a knee cartilage injury before making it to the regular season and spend his first season on IR.
In 1992 the Eagles were going in a new direction under head coach Rich Kotite and defensive coordinator Bud Carson. While Campbell was given ample time to impress in camp, it became a numbers game, and Carson’s defense requires safeties that can cover and places a premium on cornerbacks. Jesse was cut when the Eagles opted to resign corner Eric Allen. He’d sign with the rival New York Giants and push his way into a starting job by 1994. Campbell played with the Giants through 1996, before finishing out his career with the Redskins over the next two years, retiring in 1999.
He’s dabbled in coaching and is currently involved in school administration.
G/GS 92/61 TAC 304 SAC 0 FUM 3
INT 7 YDS 28 AVG 4.0 TD 0 LG 14
When Lance’s ‘trainee’ asked for his autograph, Dishman asked the kid how old he was. I wasn’t sure if it was because he was too young to remember the Oilers or because he looked too young to be in the bar. Anyway it was a good laugh. When I approached Cris, he threw me off. He told me that he’d sign anything as long as it didn’t end up on EBay. I had already paired down my selection of cards, because I did not want to go into a bar with a long box- so I left probably 5 or 6 additional Dishman cards in the car. I am not sure how he felt. He signed what I had and reaffirmed he’d sign anything else as long as it didn’t end up on EBay. Maybe he was actually hoping I had more. I then told him that I felt like after that humbling preseason game against Minnesota (in which he intercepted a pass and got busted showboating at the 2 yard line) he really turned a corner and became one of the best DBs in the league for a few years there. He stopped for a second, looked at me and told me that, “It meant a lot that I said that.” I told Cris that I wasn’t going to sell them, that I was a true blue fan thru and thru, and he and I had even talked on SotL for a bit. After telling him that I was ‘the guy with the mask on’, he smiled briefly at me and finished signing.
Cris had some pretty good cards, and despite signing a few for me over the years, he still has a pretty deep selection of decent action shots, even on bad looking cards. I rarely, if ever got Pro Set Platinum cards signed. They provided me nothing different than the base Pro Set. While they were daring with the blank canvas and full color photo, the logo is gigantic and garish. Still the card itself is a great photo of Cris. Unfortunately by this time I had already begun to scale back my card consumption, or else the Skybox ‘Colors’ set would’ve been a must have. It may have been a combination of things: Discovering girls, a market being flooded by too many products, drop in quality, etc- but whatever it was my interest in the product had dropped off the map by 1993.