They are the elder statesman in the Arizona Cardinals locker room, guys with a lot of miles on their bodies and games on the ledger.

But the love of the game is obviously still there for defensive lineman Calais Campbell and tackle Kelvin Beachum.

Advertisement

The numbers speak for themselves. Beginning his 18th season, Campbell will be 39 on Sept. 1 and has played 261 NFL regular-season games with 242 starts, including 138 and 120 in his nine seasons with the Cardinals.

Beachum celebrated birthday No. 36 on June 1 and is entering season 14 with 179 games and 161 starts. In five seasons with the Cardinals, he has played 75 games with 62 starts.

Add that up, and in their remarkable 30 seasons, the duo have totaled 440 games and 403 starts with 213 and 182 for the Cardinals.

Want durability? Campbell has missed only 15 games in his career with only six since 2016. Beachum has missed 12 since that season.

Advertisement

The humble Beachum said this week of Campbell, “So I get to learn from him. I’m not the old guy in the room anymore. He actually played for the Arizona Cardinals, so it’s cool to see the circle of the NFL life kind of come full circle. But he brings some qualities to the defense and I bring some qualities to the offense. So it’s things that we can learn from each other, ways in which we can support each other.

“And at the end of the day, we gotta find a way to put ourselves in contention to be ready to play in late December and January meaningful games. And I think both of us realize that and know how to bring that type of aura and that type of conversation to the counterparts and units that we are a part of.”

Both are playing with one-year contracts and Beachum said Wednesday he’s still playing because “I love the energy in the locker room. Yesterday was laughing, the day before that laughing, today laughing. There is such joy in this locker room right now and it’s a pleasure to be a part of it. I’m honored to be a part of it. I’m grateful to be a part of it. And I just want to be able to see this organization take that next step. I think about all the pieces that have been put into place. Look at free agency and what we did defensively, what we shored up across the roster.

“(General manager) Monti (Ossenfort) and his staff have done a phenomenal job. And I think being a part of something like this, especially at this point in your career, you wanna be a part of something meaningful. You never know if you can go all the way and go the distance. But if you see an organization putting things in place to take those next steps, you wanna be a part of it.”

Advertisement

They each have immense appreciation for still being in the NFL and love the grind that is an NFL season where there is a large amount of practice.

Looking forward to when the pads come on next week, Campbell said Thursday, “It’s kind of funny. When I was younger, I used to dread the intense practices just because of the physicality and the pain that comes from it. Your fingers get all bruised up and everything’s all kind of messed up. But, for me now, that’s where I feel like you really get the true evaluation of where you’re at because a lot of it’s like self-evaluation, like where am I at right now?

“What do I need to work on? What do I need to get better at? And I feel like a lot of that comes on those full-tilt padded days where you get the most banged up, but it’s the most like real, most like football, like a game day. It’s like the old saying, ‘If you practice like it’s a game, then on game day, it will be like practice.’”

Asked what he has to do differently to get ready each day, Campbell laughingly said, “We’d be here for a while if I listed everything that was different. But, Year 1 I could put my stuff on and go out there and not even stretch and go out there and fly around and make a lot of plays. Now, I got to get here with enough time and start doing my warmup and even in practice, I have to kind of really build up and in our individual period and all that stuff, we use like a walk-through and kind of build up. I can’t just go right into it. I would love to, but them days are gone. Long gone.

Advertisement

“But I love this game and all the facets and when you play it, you go out there and practice, I’ve come to learn. I’ve come to love practice, learn when you get out there and you’re competing against other guys and you’re trying to work and get better to get ready for a game or a season, there’s so much that you can gain from practice. And it’s kind of funny because most guys when you’re young, you just love the games. You don’t really appreciate the practice, but as you get closer to the end, you’re like, this is still football. It’s controlled football, but it’s still football.”

It was if Beachum was talking from the script when told what Campbell said about appreciating practice.

He said, “It was so funny. I was warming up before the warmup. So I got to warm up before the warmup before the warmup. And that process is actually something that I relish and I enjoy because you don’t have many left. That’s the reality of being on this side of your career. You don’t have many left, so you appreciate all the little things, all the workouts, all the warmups whether it’s on the field walk-throughs, at the hotel walk-throughs. So you just appreciate and have a deep appreciation for everything that comes with this game.”

Reflecting on the tread that is on both of their tires, Beachum acknowledged, “Some guys just don’t know, they don’t know that we’ve been in the game for a while. They don’t know who we are in some respects and that’s cool. But I think for us, we’ve served in a number of different leadership roles across the National Football League, across the NFLPA. So we’ve spent a lot of time with one another.

Advertisement

“But I think in this particular setting, guys just want to be around us to be around us. We haven’t went against each other in practice yet. I know that will happen at some point and they’ll make a big deal out of the old guys going against each other. But right now, we’re enjoying the moment as much as we can. I know I am. I can’t speak for Calais, but I know I’m enjoying the moment at the moment.”

Concluded Campbell, “I’ve been blessed, man. God gave me a lot of blessings to be able to play this game that I love. And the fact I’m still playing it, I mean, I had a lot of fortune, right? I’m very grateful for the blessings God gave me.”

Beachum and Campbell would both say Amen to that.

Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.

This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Calais Campbell and Kelvin Beachum appreciate every moment