The last time Ravens defensive end Calais Campbell was in the state of Georgia before the team's Week 5 game against the Atlanta Falcons was in the wake of unspeakable tragedy for him and his family.
In late June, about a month before the six-time Pro Bowler was slated to report to his 19th and what he believes will have been the final training camp of his illustrious Hall of Fame-worthy career, his mother, Nateal Campbell, was found slain at her Buckhead townhouse in Atlanta during a welfare check.
To make matters even worse, his older brother, Ciarre Campbell, was arrested at the scene and charged with murder after police found him in possession of a knife.
Sunday would've been the former matriarch of the family's 72nd birthday. Instead of being celebrated on the same day her son was slated to pass NFL legend Jim Marshall for the record for most games ever played by a defensive lineman from a suite or somewhere in the stands at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, she was watching over him from further above. Yet, he still felt her presence as the battle-tested Ravens rallied to beat his former team 30-23 in overtime .
"It felt really good. I just wanted to play my heart out for my mom today [and] honor her," Campbell said. "I felt like I achieved that goal. I left it all on the field today."
Before the game, he wore a memorial shirt in her honor with pictures of her on it, and with his siblings in attendance.
"She would've been here celebrating loud as can be, getting hype, telling me to go out there and make some plays," Campbell said in a video tribute on Instagram. "I'm just grateful that I had a wonderful mother for all the years I had her."
The 40-year-old expressed even greater gratitude after the game when his teammates came through on what was a very special yet still somber day for him and the whole Campbell family.
"I feel really good to honor my mom today and I am really happy that we got a win," Campbell said. "I know a lot of the guys were trying to get a win because they knew how much this meant to me, and I am very grateful."
It's one thing to hang in and bounce around the league for a decade plus, but to do what Campbell has been able to pull off in his late 30s and officially his 40s as of Sept. 1, is nothing short of spectacular.
Despite nearly two decades on the job, he continued to show he is still one of the best interior disruptors in the game in Week 5 against the Falcons, the team he signed with after his first stint with the Ravens ended.
"I really did not make a whole lot of plays, but I felt like I was playing some of my best football of my career, in spurts," Campbell said.
Humility is another one of the honorable traits that the team captain and former Walter Payton Man Of The Year award recipient possesses. However, he sold himself short when recalling the plays and significant contributions he made to the best performance by the Ravens' revamped defense of the season in his 283rd career game.
Campbell played 50% or more of the Ravens' total defensive snaps in a game for the third time this season and helped fellow multi-time Pro Bowler and his former mentee, Nnadmdi Madubuike lead the charge in stifling what had been a juggernaut of a Falcons' rushing attack the previous two weeks. He recorded a pair of total tackles, both of which were solos, including one that went for a loss. His overall grade of 85.1 was the highest given to a Ravens player on either side of the ball.
"It is hard to even explain just the work that [Campbell] puts in, how he goes about his business, the pro that he is, how he makes everybody around him better," head coach Jesse Minter said. "I know he was dealing with some, obviously, emotional thoughts and things, playing in Atlanta [on] his mom's birthday.
"I mean, [it is] pretty amazing. It was really cool to see the guys have his back, I would say, and know that that meant a lot to him without him having to say anything about it. [I] just feel very blessed to be around Calais and have him on our team, and him be the leader that he is and impacting our team the way that he is, both on the field, obviously, and in the locker room."
This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/ravens/onsi as Calais Campbell Made History And Honored Late Mother With Ravens In Week 5 .
