Eagles linebacker Jihaad Campbell embraces his roots at his back-to-school event: ‘The Jersey pride is real’

Jihaad Campbell has been here before. It‘s 2 p.m. on Saturday, a day off from Eagles training camp, and Campbell is standing near the foot of a familiar hill at Gloucester Township Community Park in Sicklerville.

A backdrop separates Campbell from the hill. He’s posing for photos in front of it with families attending his back-to-school event, distributing more than 500 backpacks and other school supplies to the community. Just weeks before, Campbell was in that same spot, running up and down that hill preparing for his first NFL season.

No matter the phase of Campbell’s life, from his Timber Creek High School days to his college career at Alabama, the park has been a constant. He frequented the grass fields with his older brothers, Dimere Kyles and Marshaan Campbell, throughout his childhood. They worked out together after football practices, their sessions enduring past sunset. They attended community days and movie nights there, too. They commiserated at the park with fellow “Jersey athletes,” as Campbell calls them, the overlooked ones with chips on their shoulders.

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“This community has always had our back,” Kyles, 26, said.

It’s Jihaad Campbell’s turn now. The Eagles drafted him No. 31 overall in April, bringing him back to the area that raised him. The rookie linebacker calls his community his “why,” his purpose that fuels his actions, on and off the field.

The back-to-school event is a manifestation of that purpose. By hosting the event, Campbell said he hopes that the children can create new friendships and memories, just like he did in the park years ago. The strong turnout on Saturday reflected their appreciation for the homegrown Eagle.

“The support system’s real,” Campbell, 21, said. “The Jersey pride is real. They say we don’t play football out here. So I’m glad I got drafted where I got drafted at so I can give that hope to these kids back here.

“That’s my biggest role. Just being a role model. Being a leader and then advocating for my community.”

Mark Campbell doesn’t use the word “surreal” to describe the feeling of watching his son achieve his NFL dreams. After all, he calls the achievement itself “premeditated.”

Jihaad Campbell showed his athletic gifts early on in his life. Marshaan recalled a 4-year-old Campbell playing youth football with an older age group because he was bigger than his peers. When Campbell scored six straight touchdowns in a game at age 10, Marshaan had a hunch that his younger brother could excel at the highest levels of the sport.

But those traits alone wouldn’t set the 6-foot-3, 235-pound Campbell up for the NFL, according to his father.

“This was by design,” Mark said. “We’d seen he had a gift real young. And we put him with the right people. We vetted the trainers and put him with the right people so that he could chase his dreams and that’s what happened.”

What is surreal, Mark said, is that football brought Campbell back to the Philadelphia area. Kyles said the entire family “almost jumped out of our bodies” when Howie Roseman called Campbell in the draft’s green room in Green Bay, Wis.

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Back home in South Jersey, Timber Creek head coach Brian Wright called it a night shortly after Campbell had dropped past the Denver Broncos’ pick at No. 20. Wright had a hunch that the Eagles would take his former star player. When he woke up the next morning, his phone was “lit up like a Christmas tree” with nearly 50 text messages.

“I could tell either someone died or just by the people who it was, I could tell what had happened without even seeing [the news],” Wright said. “Thankfully, it was the positive side of it.”

For the last three years, Campbell’s family would regularly travel to Tuscaloosa to watch him play. South Philadelphia is just a bit closer. Kyles, who coaches both girls’ flag football and boys’ football at Camden High School, has been to nearly every training camp practice to watch his younger brother. He isn’t taking the proximity for granted.

“We get to love him up again,” Kyles said. “We get to actually give him a hug whenever we get to see him again. It used to be a four- or five-hour flight just to get to Alabama and now we get to just drive 30 minutes across the bridge and go see him and give him a hug and say, ‘We love you.’”

But on Saturday, Campbell made that drive across the bridge to Sicklerville. Before the school supply distribution began, Campbell made sure to hug the volunteers, many of them friends and family members, who showed up to help him.

“Look at God, you know what I mean?” Mark said. “He really made it back here. He made it back home.”

If the back-to-school event was any indication, the Eagles could fill a section of Lincoln Financial Field with Campbell’s local loved ones. Still, Mark said he hasn’t received too many outlandish ticket requests — only jersey asks, which he hasn’t been able to fulfill.

“Actually, the Eagles didn’t put them out yet,” Mark said.

They will in due time. Campbell is the headliner of Roseman’s latest draft class, which features four defensive players taken in the first five rounds. Could Campbell become the next Cooper DeJean or Quinyon Mitchell, defensive rookies who thrived in Vic Fangio’s scheme in the Eagles’ Super Bowl-winning season?

At the very least, he’ll have an opportunity to carve out a prominent defensive role come Week 1. With Nakobe Dean sidelined as he recovers from a torn patellar tendon in his left knee, the starting inside linebacker spot alongside Zack Baun is up for grabs. Campbell is still working his way back following offseason shoulder surgery, but his size, athleticism, and physicality have been apparent in team drills, making him a contender for the gig.

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Kyles knows what Campbell can contribute on the field. He’s looking forward to seeing his brother make the big plays — the sacks, the interceptions, the hustle plays, the tackles — that he grew accustomed to witnessing in high school and college.

“I’m just ecstatic to see him do any of that stuff that he’s used to doing,” Kyles said.

Wright knows what Campbell can contribute off the field, too.

“For me, the bigger picture, that’s what’s pretty cool,” Wright said. “Knowing that he’s going to be here to help out his own people and his own community and everyone will benefit from him playing right down the road.”

He’s already seen that benefit over the last few years when Campbell would visit from Alabama and stop in the Timber Creek weight room. Wright likened Campbell’s conversations with students to “story time in preschool,” when the kids would circle around him and hang on to every last word.

Campbell had a similarly captive audience on Saturday. Back on his beloved home turf once more, Campbell distributed folders and fist bumps to the throngs of children that flowed through the assembly line of school supplies.

“We’re grateful and he’s grateful,” Marshaan said. “He’s showing his gratitude by giving back to the community. That’s the type of person he is.”