Niners scorn 'selfish' Campbell's refusal to play
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Nick Wagoner, ESPN Staff Writer
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — With injuries to their linebackers accumulating in the middle of the third quarter Thursday night against the Los Angeles Rams, the San Francisco 49ers turned to veteran De’Vondre Campbell to enter the game.
Campbell declined the invitation.
Then, in the fourth quarter, Campbell walked to the locker room with a towel over his head without playing a snap. After the Niners’ 12-6 defeat at Levi’s Stadium, head coach Kyle Shanahan explained that Campbell elected not to enter the game even though linebackers Dre Greenlaw (knee) and Dee Winters (neck) were dealing with injuries.
“He said he didn’t want to play today,” Shanahan said.
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Campbell’s decision and subsequent stroll to the locker room left Shanahan, teammates and coaches fuming after the loss. Shanahan said the plan was for Campbell to enter the game after Greenlaw had departed because he was dealing with some knee soreness. It was also Greenlaw’s first game back from an Achilles injury he sustained in Super Bowl LVIII.
After Campbell said no, the Niners inserted Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles, the team’s only healthy linebacker left on the roster, into the game. When the third quarter ended, Campbell walked to the locker room.
“People noticed, but when someone says that, you move on,” Shanahan said. “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.”
When asked whether Campbell would be released, Shanahan said simply, “We’ll figure out something.”
In the aftermath of a dispiriting defeat that almost certainly ends San Francisco’s chances at a playoff berth, a few of Campbell’s teammates declined to speak on the situation because word was just making its way around the locker room about what had happened. Linebacker Fred Warner and defensive end Nick Bosa said they didn’t know enough details to offer much of an opinion.
“It’s one person making a selfish decision. I’ve never been around anybody that’s ever done that, and I hope I’m never around anybody who does that again.”
