Cambell’s NFL future might be in grave jeopardy after he broke an unwritten rule leaving his teammates out to dry. San Francisco 49ers veteran linebacker De’Vondre Campbell refused to go into the game when asked during the team’s Thursday night 12-6 loss against Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams, who outlasted the 49ers to keep their playoff hopes alive.
Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan told the media in his postgame news conference that nine-year veteran Campbell was asked to enter the game in the third quarter after Dre Greenlaw, who was making his season debut after tearing his Achilles in last year’s Super Bowl LVIII loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, felt some general soreness, but Campbell flat out said no, walking to the locker-room moments later with a towel over his head.
Shanahan said that Campbell gave no reason or explanation for why he did not want to play.
Shanahan said he was not sure if the organization would release Campbell. “When someone says that, you move on. You don’t deal with that anymore,” 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, I don’t think we need to talk about him anymore.”
49ers tight end and one of the leaders of the team George Kittle could not hold back his frustration and called Campbell’s decision “selfish.”
“Look, if you’re on the roster and you suit up, you’re expected to play,” Kittle told reporters. “I think anyone in this building that got asked to go in, I would say 100% of everybody would die to get on that football field. And so, people go through, are going through random things off the field, I can’t speak on that.
“Whatever his decision was, it wasn’t for this organization, it wasn’t for this team and that’s on him. So, I’m not very happy about it. I wish I would’ve heard about it on the field, but I didn’t. Now, is that the reason we lost? Absolutely not. But it’s hard to win football games when someone doesn’t want to play football. Especially, when you’re suited up. It kinda puts you down, especially when you lose two linebackers and could have dressed another one.”
San Francisco cornerback Charvarius Ward, who was playing in his third game since returning following the tragic death of his 15-month-old daughter, was critical of Campbell’s actions.
“He’s a professional, he been playing for a long time,” Ward told reporters. “I mean, if he didn’t want to play, he shouldn’t have dressed out, he coulda told them that before the game. So, I feel like that was some sucka sh*t that he did. Definitely hurt the team. Cause Dee (Greenlaw) went down, and we needed a linebacker.
“That’s some sucka stuff to me, in my opinion. Probably gonna get cut soon, so it is what it is with that.”
Campbell’s bizarre behavior was the hot topic of the night from an otherwise rainy and dreary matchup at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, that featured two beat up squads playing on four days’ rest, with both offenses struggling to find a rhythm throughout the 60 minutes.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe 49ers scrounged up a field goal, on a series that was kickstarted when quarterback Brock Purdy connected with Kittle for a 33-yard gain. Several plays later, 49ers kicker Jake Moody booted a 53-yarder to give San Francisco a 3-0 lead in the first quarter.
The Rams would tie the game in the second quarter following a successful 48-yard field goal by Los Angeles Kicker Joshua Karty. However, that is as much offense as both teams would muster, as both teams combined to punt the ball seven times in the opening quarter.
Rams quarterback Stafford called it a “tough” game, pointing to the inclement weather for having an effect on the play.
“Obviously, we didn’t start great. I hit two 49ers in the chest early on, which is not great,” Stafford said, joking about his early struggles. “But you got to keep being resilient and bounce back. The defense did a hell of a job keeping us in it early.”
Los Angeles scored three field goals in the fourth quarter, while getting a game-changing interception with just over five minutes left to seal the victory.
Thursday night’s game was the first time in 152 meetings between the two teams that neither scored a touchdown through the first three quarters.
Despite not finding the end zone, Rams coach Sean McVay applauded his team for being able to win in a “variety of ways.”
“We just had a 44-42 game – we have a ton of respect for this group,” McVay said. “I thought the defense just came big time and time out. Josh Karty to be able to hit four field goals. … We love to be able to finish with touchdowns but sometimes you got to win ugly. There’s no style points.”
With the victory, the Rams improves to 8-6 on the season, winning seven of their last nine games, and now hold a 50% chance of clinching a playoff spot, according to NFL.com.
“We can go out and play with anybody. It’s about us not being ourselves” said Rams defensive lineman Kobie Turner. “Everything that happened tonight, that’s us playing our brand of ball. That’s us not kicking ourselves in the foot. At the end of the day that’s the type of team that we are.”
Meanwhile, the 49ers drop to 6-8 and sit in the basement in the NFC West with their slim chances for a playoff berth falling to under one percent.
