De’Vondre Campbell flat-out told the 49ers coaching staff that he didn’t want to play when the team needed him during the third quarter of San Francisco’s 12-6 loss to the Rams on “Thursday Night Football.”
Campbell walked off the field and into the 49ers’ locker room in the third quarter, and after the game, San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan revealed to reporters that the linebacker told the coaching staff that he had no interest in taking the field.
“He said he didn’t want to play today,” Shanahan told reporters.
“When someone says that, you move on. You don’t deal with that anymore,” Shanahan 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. I don’t think we need to talk about him anymore.”
The 49ers coach also added that Campbell, an All-Pro in 2021, didn’t give him a reason why he didn’t want to be on the field.
It possibly could be related to the return of Dre Greenlaw, who had not played since the Super Bowl when he suffered an Achilles injury while running onto the field.
His return relegated Campbell to a reserve role for the game.
Campbell had started 12 of 13 games for San Francisco going into Thursday night, but his playing time decreased over the previous three weeks, and he did not record anything on the stat sheet against the Rams.
Whatever frustration Campbell might have been feeling, his decision to refuse to play and instead walk off the field did not sit well with 49ers players, including cornerback Charvarius Ward and tight end George Kittle.
“It’s just dumb. It’s just stupid. It’s very immature,” Kittle told reporters. “I just don’t see how you could do something like that to your team.”
“I mean he’s a professional and he’s been playing for a long time. If he didn’t want to play he shouldn’t have dressed out,” Ward said to reporters. “He could have told them that before the game.”
“[He’s] probably going to get cut soon, so it is what it is with that,” Ward added.
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