Linebacker De’Vondre Campbell of the San Francisco 49ers refused to participate in the team’s Thursday Night Football game.
The Niners suffered a 12-6 loss to their NFC West rivals, the Los Angeles Rams, on Thursday, and Campbell seemingly wanted no part in it.
San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan was forced to call on the 31-year-old during the third quarter of the Week 15 game when Dre Greenlaw left the game due to an injury.
However, instead of taking the field, Campbell quit his team, refused to play and left the sideline to go back to the locker room.
“He said he didn’t want to play today,” Shanahan told reporters. “That was in the third quarter.”
San Francisco 49ers linebacker De’Vondre Campbell retired from his team during Thursday’s game
The player was caught by Amazon Prime reporting leaving the field with a towel over his head and his helmet in hand, accompanied by a 49ers staffer as they walked through the tunnel.
Campbell’s future in the Bay Area now remains unclear following the incident.
The coach wondered if the franchise would release the defensive player, to which Shanahan stoically replied, “We’ll figure something out. I don’t know now.’
Campbell’s shocking departure apparently did not go down well with his teammates in the locker room.
49ers cornerback Charvarius Ward said via Matt Barrows of The Athleticthat he thought Campbell did not handle the situation well.
“He’s probably going to be fired soon,” Ward told the media in the locker room.
“He’s a professional,” Ward said. ‘He’s been playing for a long time. If he didn’t want to play, he shouldn’t have undressed. He could have told them that before the game. I feel like he did something stupid.
“It definitely hurt the team because D went down and we needed a linebacker. … If he does that, in my opinion, that’s stupid stuff.”
Head coach Kyle Shanahan was asked if the team would release Campbell
Meanwhile, defensive star and leader Fred Warner said, “I don’t want to say too much about it. I keep it in the house.”
Campbell’s playing time had decreased in recent weeks, but he still took the field for the majority of the Niners’ defensive plays.
Greenlaw made his long-awaited return to the field on Thursday, making a comeback from an Achilles injury he suffered during last season’s Super Bowl while walking from the field to the sideline.
He started the first half for the 49ers, playing for the first time since the Super Bowl loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, but missed snaps in the second half when Campbell was likely called upon.
Campbell is in his first season with the Niners and joins this offseason after three seasons with the Green Bay Packers. In 13 games for San Francisco this season, Campbell has recorded 79 tackles.