Being an NFL head coach isn’t just a job; it’s a lifestyle. And according to Holly Campbell, the wife of Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell, it’s a lifestyle that comes with exhaustion, long nights, and more than a few mornings that start before most people even think about hitting snooze.
Holly recently appeared on the Sunday Sports Club podcast and gave fans an inside look at just how intense the grind is for her husband, especially during the season.
“As a coach, you don’t necessarily see that physical toll, but you see the mental toll, because they’re exhausted,” she explained as quoted by Lions OnSI. “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.”
Yes, Dan Campbell literally has a bed tucked inside a closet at the Allen Park Performance Center.
And sometimes, he actually uses it.
Detroit’s head coach is known around the building for his marathon workdays, and Holly confirmed that there are stretches where he doesn’t even come home.
“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 in an accident,’” she said. “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.”
Short weeks make the grind even worse. Thursday night games compress the entire routine, forcing coaches to review the previous game and prepare for the next opponent almost simultaneously.
And sometimes, that means alarm clocks going off when most of us are still deep in REM sleep.
“Like this morning, he told me last night when he went to bed. He’s like, ‘I have to get up early, like you know, shortly. I’ll have to go in early tomorrow, because of the short week,’” Holly said. “And I’m like, ‘Okay, you don’t know (what time), no problem.’ And then his alarm went off at 3:30 a.m. And he got up and he left at 3:30 a.m.
“Not like he rolled over and hit snooze. Not like made a coffee, got dressed and took a shower. He got out of bed, and then I heard the garage chime. And then I saw the lights of his truck go by. Oh, he passed the window. And I’m just like, ‘He literally left the house to go to work at 3:30 in the morning.’ It’s not even morning.”
It’s a vivid snapshot of the dedication that has come to define Campbell’s tenure in Detroit. Now entering his sixth season as head coach, the same relentless energy he shows on the sideline is clearly present behind the scenes, in film rooms, in late-night prep sessions, and even in a makeshift closet-bedroom at the team facility.
For Lions fans, it’s just another reminder: the “grit” culture isn’t a slogan. It’s a lifestyle.
