Will Campbell shares his top surprise since joining Patriots

Patriots

“When I got out here and they picked me up from the airport I was like, ‘Dang, there’s a lot of trees out here.’ I wasn’t expecting that.”

By Conor Ryan

May 11, 2025 | 6:28 PM

2 minutes to read

The first learning curve for Will Campbell in the NFL had little to do with adjusting to the elevated competition at football’s highest level.

Rather — like most Patriots rookies over the years — Campbell had to get acclimated to his new team’s surroundings right off Route 1.

Speaking to reporters following Friday’s rookie minicamp at Gillette Stadium, the Louisiana native admitted that he had no idea where exactly the Patriots played within the Commonwealth — noting his surprise the team wasn’t playing closer to Boston. 

“I was surprised there’s trees,” Campbell said. “I had never been anywhere up here before, so I always thought this was a little bit closer to Boston and there was a bunch of big city buildings and stuff like that.

“When I got out here and they picked me up from the airport I was like, ‘Dang, there’s a lot of trees out here.’ I wasn’t expecting that.”

Unlike the Red Sox, Celtics, and Bruins, the Patriots play nearly 30 miles outside of Boston in Foxborough. 

Campbell is not the only Patriots rookie who has had some trouble finding Foxborough on the map after getting drafted. 

“They called me and said, ‘You’ve been picked by New England,’” Tom Brady said in January 2021 ahead of Super Bowl LV between the Buccaneers and the Chiefs. “I said, ‘That’s amazing. Where’s New England?’”

To further compound matters, Brady said he was thrown for a loop as a rookie when he first landed at T.F. Green Airport in Rhode Island — rather than Logan Airport in Boston. 

“That really screwed me up,” Brady said, per the Tampa Bay Times’ Joey Knight. 

The Patriots are not the only NFL club whose location has had a few of their younger players scratching their heads. 

During an E:60 profile in 2013, former Bills and Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch admitted that he thought was going to be playing in New York City after getting drafted by Buffalo in 2007. 

“I didn’t know what to expect, I just knew I was going to New York,” Lynch told E:60. “I thought I was gonna be out there with Jay-Z, and then when I finally landed in Buffalo… [There was] slush on the ground. It had just finished snowing.”

As for Campbell, there will also likely be some adjustment when it comes to the temperatures in New England — especially when contrasted with the climate he usually had to deal with while playing in the SEC.

The Patriots had to hold Friday’s minicamp indoors due to heavy rain — with temperatures hovering in the low 50s. 

“It’s probably the coldest weather I’ve been in awhile, so it’s nice,” Campbell said.

 

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.