It's back to work for Campbell and Lions, who refuse to 'lose our identity'

Dan Campbell went to the Super Bowl in the second season of his playing career. It's the next season that sticks with him the most. A year after going 12-4 and winning their division, the Giants took their foot off the gas -- just a little -- and crashed to 7-9. You're only as good as your next game.

"Listen, here’s one of the best things that ever happened to me," Campbell said Wednesday as the Lions opened training camp after their best season in the modern era. "I was a part of a team that did something really special, we came up a little short, and the next year we had the exact same team. I mean, we made it a point."

But as training camp unfolded that year for the Giants, coached by the late great Jim Fassel, Campbell remembers everyone easing up. One day they wouldn't practice in pads. The next, the players would be allowed to leave early. An air of complacency permeated the team.

"And pretty soon, by the end of it, you just lost your identity. Everything that made you what you are, you went away from it because, ‘We’ll be OK. We’ve got the same guys.’ And that was a lesson learned for me," said Campbell, "because we were average. I will never forget that, ever.

"So we’re not going to lose our identity. That is the most important thing to me, and I won't sacrifice it for anyone or anything. I told the team that, and they know."

This is how Campbell is leading the Lions into the most anticipated season in franchise history: striving for more. Refusing to accept anything less. There will be no compromises in camp, except for Campbell putting his players in "compromising positions," he said, to see how they react. "To develop, to grow."

"I’ve got a couple of ideas, but we’re ready," he said. "I’m ready.”

In fact, Campbell said he's been ready since before the Fourth of July: "We've had plenty of time off." Were it up to him, the Lions might have returned to practice a week after losing to the 49ers in the NFC title game. Six months later, the work starts anew. And that was Campbell's message to his players Tuesday night, with everything in front of them.

"We don’t live off reputation, we live off of work," he said. "That’s what’s gotten us where we’re at. It’s been a long, hard road to get to where we're at right now. There’s a price to be paid, and we gotta go pay it again."

They gotta go play it again, and it won't be any easier this year. It will likely be harder, in a stiffer division and with a target on their backs. The Lions are now among the hunted. But they have their targets, too, their own list of teams on a "s**t list," as Campbell said this offseason. They also still have their goals painted on the walls of their team meeting room, which were put there last season as a reminder of everything the Lions had yet to achieve. Two of them are now crossed out with tape:

No playoff wins since 1992. No division championships since 1993. No league championship since 1957.

"We’ve checked the box on two and we’ve got one more to check. But to get there, we gotta check those first two one more time and update them," said Campbell. "Everything starts with finding a way to win your division."

The NFC North is deeper and more daunting this year, with the Packers hot on the Lions' heels and the Bears on the come. And the Vikings still have enough talent to put a scare into anyone. The Lions split with Green Bay and Chicago last season, and swept Minnesota. Those are just a few of the barriers in their path. But their biggest hurdle is already staring them in the face.

"Your own worst enemy," said Campbell, "is always going to be yourself. We’re always going to have to guard against the complacency, the entitlement, the reputation. Like, what is that? That’s nothing. We gotta go back to work.”