49ers linebacker De'Vondre Campbell has had a lot of great NFL moments, but it's unlikely that he'll be remembered for anything but refusing to take the field Thursday night.
The 49ers were playing for their season against the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday night. With a 6-7 record coming into the game, a loss would just about seal a no-postseason status for the defending NFC champions.
Evidently, one 49ers player didn't get the memo.
The 49ers signed veteran linebacker De'Vondre Campbell this offseason to a one-year, $4.5 million contract this offseason, because they needed help until Dre Greenlaw fully recovered from the torn Achilles tendon he suffered in Super Bowl LVIII. Greenlaw made his return in this game, and he was an absolute beast in the first half, totaling eight tackles before knee and Achilles tightness put him back on the bench.
At that point, head coach Kyle Shanahan asked Campbell to sub in for Greenlaw. Campbell had played 719 snaps this season as Fred Warner's bookend, and while he wasn't at Greenlaw's level, he played well for the most part, and certainly lived up to his contract.
All that went out the window in the third quarter of the 49ers' 12-6 loss to the Rams, because Campbell refused to enter the game, instead going to the locker room. No injuries were indicated when Shanahan was asked about it postgame.
The Amazon Prime crew, filled with former NFL players, were fairly dumbstruck by Campbell's refusal to play. As was cornerback Charvarius Ward, who made his feelings abundantly clear.
The Amazon Prime crew, filled with former NFL players, were fairly dumbstruck by Campbell's refusal to play. As was cornerback Charvarius Ward, who made his feelings abundantly clear.
It's hard to come back from such a thing, especially when you're asked to help your team in a close game that determines your postseason destiny, and you simply refuse.
There are very few examples of this happening in recent years.
Of course, there was whatever the heck receiver Antonio Brown did with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021, for which he was subsequently released.
Vontae Davis, the late cornerback who played for multiple teams in his 10-year career, ended that career by deciding at halftime of a game in 2018 against the Los Angeles Chargers when he was with the Buffalo Bills that he simply didn't want to play football anymore.
"Leaving was therapeutic," Davis said later. "I left everything the league wanted me to be, playing for my teammates while injured, the gladiator mentality, it all just popped. And when it popped, I just wanted to leave it all behind. So that's why I don't care what people say. That experience was personal and not meant for anyone else to understand. It was me cold turkey leaving behind an identity that I carried with me for so long."
When he was with the Seattle Seahawks, receiver/returner Percy Harvin was famous internally for two things: Starting fights with teammates, and refusing to play in more than one game when he was asked. The last straw for Pete Carroll happened on October 12, 2014, when Harvin refused to play in a game against the Dallas Cowboys.
Harvin was traded to the New York Jets five days later.
It's hard to know what Campbell could even say to his teammates after such a thing. As Ward said, if Campbell didn't want to play, he shouldn't have suited up.
What the 49ers know now is that they probably won't make the playoffs, and that was determined in part by a game in which they had a 6-3 third-quarter lead, and one of their most important players refused to help when it was most important.
How you get past that in the NFL is very tough to say.
