From fake teeth to movie clips, Dan Campbell's pregame speeches are the stuff of legend

On the night before their biggest game of the season, Dan Campbell gathered the Detroit Lions in a meeting room at the team's Allen Park practice facility and didn't say a word.

Campbell, who's earned a reputation as a master motivator in his three seasons as Lions coach, simply dimmed the lights at 8 p.m. Saturday and played a famous scene from the movie "Poolhaul Junkies" on the projection screen at the front of the room.

In the scene, Mike, a wealthy financier played by Christopher Walken, counsels Johnny, the hustler he's teamed up with, played by Mars Callahan, that "every once in a while the lion has to show the jackals who he is. It's too late to be scared. It's time to kill."

When the scene ended, Campbell flipped on the lights and told his players, blood coursing through their collective veins, he'd see them the next day at Ford Field for their divisional playoff game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

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That's it. Meeting adjourned.

"It was just like, 'OK, I got the message,'" offensive lineman Colby Sorsdal said. "You’re ready to go. And it was like, the kind of adrenaline where you’re like, 'OK, I got to save it for tomorrow, but man, I’m ready to go.' Like, 'Let’s go. Let’s go and just eat these Bucs alive.' So it was awesome. It was awesome."

The Lions beat the Bucs, 31-23, for their second playoff win in 32 years to advance to this week's NFC championship game against the San Francisco 49ers.

If they beat the 49ers at 6:30 p.m. Sunday at Levi's Stadium, they will move on to the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history.

Campbell called the 49ers "an outstanding test for us," but said Wednesday it's something he's confident his young team is "ready for."

"You have to have ability in this league. We have ability," he said. "But deeper than that, man, you have to be able to handle the ebbs and the flows of a game and a season and playoffs. And that’s what has been built for three years now. And so that’s what gives me faith.

"Look, there’s going to be things that are going to happen in this game that it’s going to look like it’s out of control, and it’s not going to go well for us. And as long as we just play the next play, it’ll turn. And that’s what we’ve done all year, and that’s the most important thing to keep in mind, but you’ve got to be made a certain way and the team has to be made a certain way to be able to handle that, otherwise, you’ll just crumble. So that’s what gives me faith. We have a team that’s built that way."

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This Lions team has been hardened by the struggles it endured during Campbell's first two seasons as head coach, when it followed up a 3-13-1 first season with a 1-6 start last year.

Things made a sharp turn last November when the Lions started piling up wins, and they haven't stopped in the 14 months since. They've won 22 of their last 29 games and Campbell's unique ability to push the right buttons with all of his players is a big reason why.

Asked to share his favorite non-football memory of the season Wednesday, defensive lineman John Cominsky said last week's Saturday night team meeting might top the list.

"I always kind of write down things, good speeches and stuff and I think Dan Campbell’s had a number of speeches this year that we all leave with goosebumps and we’re all fired up," he said. "Just some of those moments and Saturday night meetings before the game."

Campbell said last Friday he hadn't scripted out what he planned to say in the next day's meeting, but some of his talks already are legendary.

Linebacker Alex Anzalone said Campbell was so fired up at one Saturday night meeting last year that his fake tooth popped out of his mouth in the middle of his speech.

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"All of a sudden we see something come out of his mouth, he’s like, 'Yeah, that was my (bleeping) tooth,'" Anzalone said this summer, pantomiming like he was out of breath. "And he puts it back in and just goes back to it. ... Picks it back up, puts it back in and he just keeps talking like nothing happened. We’re all just like, 'What the …'"

Campbell is an expert as using vivid imagery, as captured at training camp last season by "Hard Knocks" and as he made famous in his introductory speech upon being hired in January of 2021, to connect with players and fans.

But for every twice-bitten kneecap and opponent drowned out in the abyss, players say he's just as comfortable keeping things mellow.

At one team meeting in training camp this season, Campbell simply played a selection of music from artists like Jack Black and Eminem.

"I think Jared (Goff) says this a lot," Anzalone said. "Dan plays into the whole meathead thing, but in reality he’s pretty chill and calm and collected in one-on-one settings."

Cornerback Chase Lucas said one Campbell speech that hit home for him came after the Lions' Week 17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, when they appeared to take a one-point lead late in the game only to have the go-ahead 2-point conversion nullified by a controversial penalty.

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Campbell told players the next week they were "scarred to perfection," a phrase that still gives Lucas chills.

"I feel it," Lucas said. "Like we've been through so many adverse situations but always stuck together. I just love how he put that. And then for us to go finish it the way that we finished it and still going, it's pretty dope."

The Lions have not lost since that game.

For Lions safety Kerby Joseph, the Campbell speech that still resonates the most is one the Lions coach delivered last year comparing the team to Rich Strike, the horse that won the Kentucky Derby in 2022 with 80-to-1 odds.

The Lions were longshots to make the playoffs after their 1-6 start, but nearly pulled off the impossible when they finished 9-8.

Campbell's biggest motivational success, though, Joseph said, is the unwavering belief he's been able to instill in players in the process of winning.

Mistakes happen. Losses, too. Neither detract from the big picture goal, which has always been to get here.

"Dan Campbell, he’s just got a way with like his players," Joseph said. "I feel like we truly believe that so we kind of just buy into everything he’s saying, for real. And it’s true. Like he told us events like this were going to happen if we just kept being dialed in and take it one step at a time, so like just to see the blessing that we all made as a team, that’s huge. That just keeps our faith in Dan Campbell for real."

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions' Dan Campbell's pregame speeches are the stuff of legend