Longtime Detroit sports reporter Lynn Henning continued his controversial crusade against Jack Campbell’s family amid the hospitalization of the Lions linebacker.
“As for Jack Campbell, we’re in Day 9 of there being not the slightest detail, other than general optimism, about his injury,” Henning, 74, wrote via X on Monday, November 9. “That’s not helping a responsible Lions community that would benefit from some basic info.”
Campbell, 26, has been hospitalized in Detroit since suffering a scary neck injury in a game against the Minnesota Vikings on November 1.
The NFL star broke his silence about the injury in a statement released by the Lions on Wednesday, November 4.
“I have full movement in my lower body, and I’m continuing to make progress with movement in my upper body,” Jack said, in part. “I know there’s still work ahead, but I remain very optimistic. I’m taking things one day at a time, staying positive, and focusing on getting better.”
Neither Jack or the Lions has released anything more specific about his condition.
Henning, who worked at the Detroit News for 40 years before retiring in 2019, defended himself when one follower urged him to “let it go.”
“Not letting it go, because it keeps coming up,” Henning responded. “And it will continue to come up. Because people want answers. You’re either kidding yourself, or you’re kidding yourself. One or the other.”
Henning gave a lengthy response when one follower suggested that Campbell’s health is nobody’s “business.”
“Is the NFL ‘our business’? Are games ‘our business’? Are NFL players and their performances and injuries ‘our business’ — especially when they occur during a game? Of course they are,” Henning argued. “If a player is so protective as to want an injury, on a field, which led to two teams kneeling, not explained in reasonable detail, he might wish to consider a different profession.”
He continued, “It wasn’t privacy that got Jack Campbell an incredibly rich and well-deserved contract. No one’s asking for intimate physical details of an off-the-field condition. This was a nationally televised moment of acute concern and peril. A reasonable medical update should have been offered within immediate days.”
Henning previously faced backlash last week, when he first criticized Jack and his family for what he perceived to be a lack of transparency.
“A proper appeal to the Jack Campbell family: Please inform the football world about what doctors have so far determined,” he wrote via X on November 3. “People care, fundamentally, about Jack Campbell. They also wish to know anything that pertains to the family’s and team’s early indicators of optimism.”
Henning’s post continued, “This is not intrusive. It’s being asked by those who saw the event and who care mightily about a man’s health and future.”
