After the Los Angeles Rams defeated the San Francisco 49ers in a rainy Thursday night matchup, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan revealed that linebacker De'Vondre Campbell declined to go in for Dre Greenlaw in the game's third quarter.
Per Shanahan, Campbell told his coach that he "didn't want to play today," then retreated into the locker room mid-game. Notably, Greenlaw had just returned from an Achilles injury, thus relegating Campbell to the bench against the Rams.
Speaking on the Thursday Night Football desk, Richard Sherman weighed in on the situation.
"There was some frustration from DeVondre that, 'Hey, I played the whole season. I put my work in, put my time in,'" Sherman posits. "But you just can’t do it though. This is a team sport. It’s not like they just replaced you with a JAG (Just A Guy). They didn’t replace you with someone who is not a guy. This is someone who has been an impactful player for this team for a long time."
He continues: "It’s frustration. You can empathize with him to a degree, but you quit on your team. And you can’t do that in the National Football League. I’d be surprised if he’s on the team after that.”
"I think those emotions sometimes get the best of you, and it’s just a lack of judgement there," adds Andrew Whitworth. "At the end of the day, when you walk off this field five years from when you’re done playing, you’re going to want to be proud of who you were as a teammate, who you were as the guy in tough situations for your team."
Kyle Shanahan revealed that De'Vondre Campbell didnt want to play in the 3rd quarter.
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The TNF crew share their thoughts on the situation. pic.twitter.com/8lcK1tkGTT
"It's frustrating because Dre was done at that point," Sherman adds toward the end of the clip. "And you could have come in and made a positive impact and helped your team win the game. That's why you continue to play. ... Because you never know how it's going to shake out in the end. You could have been the hero today but now you walked out on your team in a game that was a winnable ball game."
During the presser, Shanahan declined to discuss how the team would handle the incident, only going so far as to say they would "figure something out." But speaking at the TNF desk, Tony Gonzalez muses that maybe Campbell went into that moment knowing he could get cut.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Richard Sherman, 'TNF' Desk React to De'Vondre Campbell's Mid-Game Exit vs. Rams.
