Just because the 2025 NFL season for the Detroit Lions ended with disappointment doesn’t mean that head coach Dan Campbell wasn’t one of the hardest working head coaches in all the League. And nobody knows first-hand how hard he works better than his wife, Holly.
While recently making an appearance on the Sunday Sports Club podcast, she explained the mental toll on NFL head coaches that sometimes goes unnoticed by the fans, even noting that Campbell has a small mattress in his office.
“As a coach, you don’t necessarily see that physical toll, but you see the mental toll, because they’re exhausted,” Holly Campbell explained. “There’s times that Dan, he’s got a bed, like in a wall, it’s a closet off of his office and there’s like a twin mattress in there. It’s like kind of shoved in the back. It’s like a little, it’s very depressing. But, it’s dark.”
She also noted that there are often several days per week during the season that Dan will actually stay overnight at the Allen Park practice facility.
“There’s nights he’ll spend the night, because I mean, it just — first of all, I’m like, ‘I don’t want you to get an accident.’ I mean, he drives like a big, huge F-250. So, I think he’d be fine no matter what, but like whatever he hit wouldn’t be. Just driving home, I’m also like, that’s a good 40 minutes. Back-and-forth, that’s like over an hour that, like, you could just save by staying there.
“He doesn’t like to stay there, but like there are some weeks that he’ll stay two or three nights, but then there’s other weeks he doesn’t stay there at all. It just kind of depends on how it’s going.”
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Detroit Lions Dan Campbell Gave Himself A Failing Grade For The 2025 NFL Season
During his end-of-season press conference, Campbell gave himself a rather harsh review of his overall performance as head coach of the club which also included the offensive play-calling duties for nearly half of the campaign.
“Not good enough, we didn’t get in, we underachieved,” Campbell said somberly. “So, not good. I’d give myself a freaking F.”
“It’s hard to believe that this is it,” Campbell continued. “It’s going to be a hard pill to swallow watching these teams in the playoffs. But I think you’ve got to watch them. You’ve got to force yourself to do it because that’s a drive to want to be there, be a part of it.”
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The Lions Need To Get Their Hunger Back
As Campbell would explain, the Lions can get back to ruling the NFC North and return to the NFL postseason as they had in each of the last two seasons by instilling a new sense of hunger in the players, both those who return and those who will be newcomers next season.
“We’ve got nobody to blame but ourselves. But I really don’t believe we’re that far off,” he said. “There’s a couple of things we can do, and I just want to make sure we go after it. I’m not saying we weren’t hungry, but let’s get that hunger back and we’re going to bring in some guys to compete.”
Dan Campbell’s Wife Holly Reveals True Grind Of Being The Detroit Lions’ Coach