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San Francisco 49ers linebacker De’Vondre Campbell was told to take the field during the third quarter of Thursday night’s game against the Rams while his teammates dealt with injuries.
Campbell refused — and at the end of the quarter, he headed to the locker room.
That could be the last time he’s seen in a 49ers uniform.
After a 12-6 loss that dropped the 49ers to 6-8 and all but ended their hopes for a repeat Super Bowl trip this season, coach Kyle Shanahan was asked by reporters what had happened with Campbell.
“He said he didn’t want to play today,” Shanahan said.
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Shanahan added that Campbell had not provided that information to the team until that moment and did not give a reason for his decision.
Campbell, a nine-year veteran, was signed as a free agent during the offseason to play weakside linebacker while longtime starter Dre Greenlaw recovered from an Achilles injury he sustained during the Super Bowl in February. Campbell started at that position in all but one of the first 13 games, but Greenlaw got the nod Thursday night in his season debut.
Shanahan told reporters the plan had been for Campbell to enter the game for Greenlaw at some point. That opportunity seemed to arise in the third quarter, but Campbell had other ideas.
Star tight end George Kittle said after the game that Campbell had made “a selfish decision.”
“I’ve never been around anybody that’s ever done that,” Kittle said, “and I hope I’m never around anybody who does that again.”
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He added: “I don’t like distractions on the sideline. I think that’s ignorant, and I think it’s just dumb. It’s just stupid, and it’s very immature. I just don’t see how you could do something like that to your team.”
Cornerback Charvarius Ward, who returned to the team earlier this month after his 1-year-old daughter died in October, had plenty to say about Campbell after the game.
“He’s a professional. He’s been playing for a long time. If he didn’t want to play, he shouldn’t have dressed out. He could have told them that before the game,” Ward said. “It definitely hurt the team, ’cause you know D went down and we needed a linebacker. … So, for him to do that, that’s some selfish stuff to me, in my opinion. He’s probably going to get cut soon, so it is what it is with that.”
Asked if Campbell would be released, Shanahan said, “We’ll figure out something, but I don’t know that right now.”
He later added: “That’s somebody who doesn’t want to play football. That’s pretty simple. I think our team and myself, we know how we feel about that, so we don’t need to talk about him anymore.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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