Roman Anthony and Will Campbell play different sports, and have different body types, different personalities, different backgrounds. But they are strikingly similar in this respect: Having arrived on the Boston professional sports scene this year amid great expectations — Anthony as a rookie outfielder with the Red Sox, Campbell as a first-year left tackle with the New England Patriots — they’ve carried themselves like seasoned veterans.

But there’s a bad-news similarity: Anthony strained his left oblique muscle in early September and was lost for the rest of the season, and Campbell will be out at least a couple of weeks, and possibly longer, after suffering a knee injury in New England’s 26-20 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.

Yes, there’s some good news attached to that bad-news similarity: Campbell is expected to be back out there providing hired muscle for quarterback Drake Maye if and when the playoffs arrive. It certainly didn’t look like that on Sunday, what with Campbell solemnly pulling a towel down over his face as he was being carted off the playing field at Cincinnati’s Paycor Stadium.

HEARTBREAKING: #Patriots rookie left tackle Will Campbell was in TEARS as he was carted off the field with a knee injury.

💔💔💔

Campbell has been one of the best rookies in the league this season.
pic.twitter.com/KnsTcKFzWy

— MLFootball (@MLFootball) November 23, 2025

With Anthony, things never got beyond Red Sox manager Alex Cora telling the kid to “envision the ALCS first at-bat,” the idea being that he’d be healed up in time for the third round of MLB’s postseason tourney. But the Red Sox got knocked out in the wild-card round by the New York Yankees, and, anyway, Cora’s well-intended optimism was never going to play out.

Reality soon set in, at which time it was determined Anthony was done for the year. He returned home to Florida with a first-year resume of eight home runs, 32 RBIs and a .292/.396/.463 slash line in 303 plate appearances, and, oh yes, an eight-year, $130 million contract.

And Campbell? “He won’t be out there (practicing) this week,” Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said on Monday. “It’s going to be a couple weeks. We’ll have to make a decision here on the roster to see how long that will be and go from there. But it’s nothing that’s going to, hopefully, put him out for the entire season.”

There was a little Cora in there by Vrabel, but with guardrails.

New England’s next game is Monday night against the New York Giants at Gillette Stadium. The Pats then have a bye week, followed by games against the Buffalo Bills, Baltimore Ravens, New York Jets and Miami Dolphins. The so-called “light schedule” just got a little heavier with Campbell out, but the Pats are 10-2 and looking to secure a first-round playoff bye. The more mending time for Campbell, the better.

View of Will Campbell’s right knee injury via @CBSSportsHQ @NFLonCBS @wbz
pic.twitter.com/NKRJzvqKn1

— Dan Roche (@RochieWBZ) November 24, 2025

One thing that hasn’t changed in professional sports in this modern era of legalized gambling, uniform schemes that change with the weather and big-league baseball teams playing in minor-league ballparks is that there’s something special about the rookie. We tend to pay closer attention when a player steps up for his first at-bat, catches his first pass, scores his first goal, nets his first basket. I do, anyway. To see the ball from a player’s first big-league hit removed from the game is to imagine it being presented with love to supportive parents, with the expectation it’ll be passed on to future generations. 

OK, I’m getting a little poetic here. But at a time when Greater Boston’s MLB and NFL franchises are coming out of funks — the Sox made the playoffs for the first time since 2021, which happens to be the last time the Pats made the playoffs — Anthony and Campbell are symbols of the turnaround. Now mind you, Anthony has a long, long way to go if he’s going to be the next Carl Yastrzemski, and I’m not saying that. Just as I’m absolutely not suggesting Campbell is going to be another John Hannah. Trumpeting of that sort would be unfair to Campbell and disrespectful to Hannah.

But that’s not the point. What matters is that something changed with the Red Sox and Patriots when these guys arrived. It took a while for Anthony to develop a power swing, but his Aug. 21 home run at Yankee Stadium, which included that little backhanded bat flip, signaled the start of a new era in the greatest rivalry in sports. (And please don’t tell me it’s not.)

The Roman Empire!

Roman Anthony crushes a homer in his first career game at Yankee Stadium 💪 pic.twitter.com/huULenlGZj

— MLB (@MLB) August 22, 2025

Campbell’s first season hasn’t been as flashy, but c’mon: offensive linemen generally aren’t flashy. But look at it this way: When was the last time you heard anyone squawking about Campbell’s short arms? 

Campbell hasn’t been very chatty with the media, but part of that, just guessing here, is that football is more wedded to the belief that rookies should be seen and not heard. Rob Gronkowski stands out as one of the few Patriots rookies I can remember who was happily holding court with the media from Day 1. Most of the rest generally give it a year. 

Besides, it’s Maye, the quarterback, last year’s big rookie, who gets most of the attention. But don’t forget what Maye rolled out on social media on the night Campbell was drafted: “Love this guy already.” At Campbell’s introductory news conference the next day at Gillette, the new No. 66 said, “Drake is a heck of a player. I’m super excited to build our relationship.”

By all accounts, Maye and Campbell have done just that. It’s true the Patriots will only go as far as their quarterback takes them, but it’s also true that they badly needed to rebuild their offensive line. Campbell is the centerpiece of that rebuild. 

Boston fans have had fun watching Roman Anthony and Will Campbell in 2025. By no small coincidence, they’ve had fun watching the Red Sox and Patriots again.