Sampson graduated from Stanford University in 1972, where he starred as a defensive end, playing on two Rose Bowl-winning teams (1971 and 1972).
Sampson grew up in Long Beach, California and graduated in 1968 from Millikan High School, where he first joined the football team his junior year as the kicker.
But then during a 1979 pre-season drill with his teammates, his helmet was struck and a blood clot in the brain developed.
In 2010, Sampson was voted by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times as the Houston Oilers best offensive lineman in the history of the team.
This biographical article relating to an American football offensive lineman born in the 1950s is a stub.