San Francisco 49ers linebacker De’Vondre Campbell shocked the NFL world this week when he refused to enter the team’s Thursday Night Football clash.
Campbell, who lost his starting job to the returning Dre Greenlaw, who came back from the Achilles tear he suffered during the Super Bowl.
However, when Campbell was called upon by head coach Kyle Shanahan in the third quarter as Greenlaw experienced soreness from the recuperating injury, he refused.
Instead of taking to the field Campbell quit on his team, refusing to play and leaving the sidelines to head back to the locker room.
Following the game, Shanahan said the team was ‘working through the semantics’ of how to handle Campbell.
And now it has been revealed that rather than cut the player, the Niners are working with the league office to pursue the maximum punishment for Campbell, according to Jay Glazer.
De’Vondre Campbell (left) refused to enter the San Francisco 49ers game on Thursday
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan needed the defensive lineman to enter in the third quarter
The franchise is reportedly targeting a suspension for the remainder of the season. The team allegedly feels that releasing Campbell and allowing him to join another team would be a ‘reward.’
Glazer also reported that general manager John Lynch confronted Campbell on the sideline after he learnt that the player was refusing to enter the game. Lynch then reportedly sent Campbell to the locker room.
After the game, which the 49ers lost 12-6 a number of Campbell’s teammates expressed their anger and frustration with one of their own deciding to pull themselves out of the game.
When asked if a decision like that leads to disconnection in the locker room, Niners star tight end George Kittle said that Campbell’s actions were his own and the team would try to move past them.
‘Not disbelief or disconnection as a team. That is one person who just decided not to play for his teammates,’ Kittle told reporters after the game.
‘That doesn’t make our offense look at each other like “wow man, we’re falling apart” or the defense [saying] “hey we’re falling apart”.
‘It’s more of one person making, like [cornerback Charvarius Ward] said, a selfish decision. and I’m with [Ward] on that. I’ve never been around anybody that’s ever done that, and I hope I’m never around anyone that does that again.’
Ward, who recently lost his young daughter , was the most vocal in his criticism of Campbell, telling reporters in the locker room after the game.
Niners players Charvarius Ward (L) and George Kittle (R) expressed their disappointment
‘He a professional, he been playing for a long time. I mean if he didn’t wanna play, he shouldn’t have dressed out. Y’know he could’ve told me that before the game. So I feel like that was some sucka s**t that he did.’
‘Definitely hurt the team cause you know Dee [Winters] went down and we needed a linebacker, I think [linebacker Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles] was banged up too.
‘So for him to do that, that’s some sucka stuff to me in my opinion. Probably gonna get cut soon, so it is what it is with that.’
Meanwhile, defensive star and leader Fred Warner said: ‘I don’t wanna say too much on it. I’ll keep it in house.’
