Calais Campbell will turn 34 in September, and after 12 NFL seasons, he doesn’t have much time for buffoonery.

The five-time Pro Bowl defense end said as much Thursday on a conference call with reporters while explaining how he ended up joining the Baltimore Ravens.

Campbell didn’t have total control over his future entering this offseason. He was under contract with the rebuilding Jacksonville Jaguars, and though he expected a trade, he didn’t have the luxury of hand-picking a negotiating partner the way an unrestricted free agent might.

On Thursday’s call, Campbell said he knew four or five teams wanted to trade for him. The Ravens were one of those suitors, but they would not have made the deal if Campbell wasn’t prepared to sign a contract extension upon arriving in Baltimore. Campbell said his agent, Tom Condon, told him he could earn a bit more money if he steered clear of the Ravens.

That didn’t matter enough to Campbell — he wanted to play in Baltimore, and so he greenlit the trade and a one-year contract extension worth an extra $10 million. The Ravens sent a fifth-round pick to Jacksonville to get the deal done.

“My agent wasn’t too happy about that because he thought I could’ve got a whole lot more a different way,” Campbell said, “but I told him, ‘At this point in my career, the main goal for me is winning.’”

That explains why the Ravens, on the heels of a 14-2 season, piqued his interest.

Campbell said he watched MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson and the team stomp to an AFC North title last year and win 12 straight games down the stretch of the regular season. He felt Baltimore supplied him a chance late in his career to win his first Super Bowl.

“I was more confident going to Baltimore, even if I had to take less than going to another place,” Campbell said. “There's not many teams better. I mean, Baltimore was 14-2 last year. It's a very talented young team, core nucleus of guys. This team could be very special for a good while here, and so I wanted to throw my hat in the ring and really just try to add value where I can.”

The value Campbell figures to provide is clear: He’s the type of versatile defensive lineman with a history of interior pass rush productivity that the Ravens have lacked in recent years. Campbell piled up 31.5 sacks over his three seasons with the Jaguars.

Campbell thinks he’ll fit into a system run by defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale, a blitz-happier play-caller who likes to move players around the field and aim to cause confusion.

It wasn’t just the scheme or the talent that attracted Campbell to Baltimore, though. The mindset of the team also served as a pull to Charm City.

He noticed how freely 12 Ravens players and the team’s coaching staff conversed at the Pro Bowl in Orlando in January, and he talked with former teammates who gushed about their time in Baltimore. Using those experiences and taking note of the Ravens dominant run during the 2019 season, Campbell concluded that coach John Harbaugh had a group of focused players hungry for success.

That appealed to a soon-to-be 34-year-old with hopes of hoisting a Vince Lombardi trophy.

“At the end of the day, to be in a locker room where I know they’re committed to winning and to be in a locker where the culture is strong, where we have a big winning culture and I won’t have to chase around guys getting them to buy in, that was a big selling point,” Campbell said.

And it might even make things long days at training camp or grueling practices a bit more tolerable.

“That motivation where you’re training to put the work in to be the best you can be, it gets harder and harder each year,” Campbell said. “When you believe you can win, when you believe you have a chance to win a Super Bowl, it just makes it a little bit easier.”

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Aaron Kasinitz covers the Baltimore Ravens for PennLive and can be reached at akasinitz@pennlive.com or on Twitter @AaronKazreports. Follow PennLive’s Ravens coverage on Facebook and Youtube.