Hall of Fame Cowboys Coach Had Dan Campbell Start a Fight in Practice to Wake Up Team

The Lions coach was just as fiery during his playing days, and one legendary NFL figure used that to his advantage.

Dan Campbell served an important role as Cowboys tight end under coach Bill Parcells: enforcer. / Tim Heitman-Imagn Images

Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell famously played and coached under Sean Payton with the New Orleans Saints, parlaying that experience into his first full-time head coaching job with the Detroit Lions, with whom he's emerged as one of the NFL's best—and most fiery—coaches. Payton isn't the only coaching legend who saw something special in Campbell, however. From 2003 to '06, the physical tight end played for Bill Parcells with the Dallas Cowboys. According to former Cowboys assistant Todd Haley, he was something of an enforcer for the Hall of Famer.

Appearing on This Is Football with Kevin Clark, Haley shared a pretty perfect Campbell story. Ahead of a game with the rival New York Giants, Parcells was not happy with the team's effort during a midweek practice, so he called over Campbell. The rest, according to Haley, is priceless.

"We were struggling, I think we had a big game against the Giants. Obviously a big rival. It was in New York on national television, it was going to be a night game," Haley said. "... Practice on Wednesday was going bad. You could see Bill Parcells getting heated up. He was not happy with the way anything was going, there was no energy, and I see him call Dan over to the side and say a couple words to him and Dan runs back into the huddle. And Parcells, with his arms crossed like he always did, walked over to me and said, "Watch this, Todd." A fight ensued on the next play, and Dan Campbell was in the middle of it.

"As coaches, you gotta do whatever you have to do to get things going in the right direction, and he knew Dan was his man to get in there and stir it up and it worked. All of a sudden practice, everyone's hooting and hollering, excited and good things happened from there."

Todd Haley was on the Cowboys staff when Dan Campbell was a player.

One day the Cowboys were struggling. Practice was lethargic. Bill Parcells had a secret weapon: Ask Dan Campbell to get in a practice fight.

Practice wasn't lethargic after that. pic.twitter.com/JnNtchkSmB

— Kevin Clark (@bykevinclark) June 24, 2025

Campbell and Parcells were both with the Cowboys from 2003 to '06 while Haley served as wide receivers coach from '04 to '06, so that puts the story in that time frame. The Cowboys would lose both of their trips to the Meadowlands those years, 28–24 in Week 17 of the '04–05 season and 17–10 in Week 13 of the '05–06 season. Even so, when Parcells needed his team to get a boost, he went to Campbell.

Now, as a coach himself, Campbell is a master at motivating and energizing his team. It wouldn't be a surprise if he has this trick up his sleeve for a similar situation.

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