49ers Go Scorched Earth On (Now Former?) Teammate After Loss

Did you ever think you’d hear one teammate use the words “ignorant,” “dumb,” “stupid” and “immature” to describe another teammate?

It’s been that kind of season for the San Francisco 49ers, who appear to have reached a breaking point.

San Francisco found itself on the losing end Thursday against the Los Angeles Rams, dropping its third game of the last four weeks. It’s probably safe to say tensions were already high, but things boiled over when veteran linebacker De’Vondre Campbell refused to enter the game.

“He said he didn’t want to play today,” Shanahan said, per team-provided video.

Shanahan said the plan was for Campbell to enter the game after Dre Greenlaw — who replaced his fellow linebacker in the starting lineup in his first game back since Super Bowl LVIII — departed because he was dealing with some knee soreness. Campbell had other ideas, walking to the locker room at the conclusion of the third quarter.

“People noticed, but when someone says that, you move on,” 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 we don’t need to talk about him anymore.”

How do his teammates feel? George Kittle — who has played through calf and hamstring injuries this season — and Chavarius Ward — who recently returned to play after the death of his 1-year-old daughter — were not happy.

“If you’re on the roster and you suit up, you’re expected to play,” Kittle, who was unaware of the situation during the game, said. “… I’m a leader on the team, and if that is something that is being a distraction on the sideline, I would’ve loved to voice my own opinion at the moment, and we’re past that moment. It doesn’t matter what I wish I could have said or wish I could have done, but I don’t like distractions on the sideline. I think that’s ignorant. And I think it’s just dumb. It’s just stupid, and it’s very immature. I just don’t see how you could do something like that to your team. It’s one person making a selfish decision. I’ve never been around anybody that’s ever done that, and I hope I’m never around anybody who does that again.”

“He’s a professional; he been playing for a long time,” Ward said. “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 s— that he did. Definitely hurt the team. Cause Dee 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, 31, didn’t play a snap on Thursday, likely making San Francisco just the latest stop — alongside the Atlanta Falcons, Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers — on his list of former teams.