POTOMAC FALLS, Va.
(AP) — sat on a patio with a distant view of the Potomac River, preparing to host the charity golf tournament that bears his name. Choosing his words carefully, he reflected on the sequence of events that nearly led him to ask for a trade from the Washington Redskins. “It definitely was a shock,” Campbell said, “when I started hearing Sanchez talk.” Campbell was still the Redskins’ starting quarterback Monday, having survived the second of two attempts by the team’s brain trust to acquire someone else. He was having dinner Thursday night when he first learned that the front office was seriously interested in working a deal to select Southern California quarterback Mark Sanchez in the first round of the NFL draft. Once was bad enough. Twice was too much. Had the Redskins drafted Sanchez, Campbell would have asked for a trade, said a person familiar with the situation who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject. Asked if it were so, Campbell dodged the question with a huge smile. “No comment, you know,” he said. Just three weeks earlier, the Redskins tried to trade for quarterback Jay Cutler. When the deal fell through, there was a clear-the-air meeting between Campbell, owner Dan Snyder, front office chief Vinny Cerrato and coach Jim Zorn. Afterward, Cerrato announced: “We are all on the same page and we are moving forward.”
But Sanchez wasn’t on that particular page, at least not in Campbell’s mind. In hindsight, Campbell was asked, does that big meeting earlier this month now seem rather pointless