Yahoo Sports George Kittle and 49ers Coach Slam 'Stupid' Teammate for Refusing to Play in Game
De'Vondre Campbell, a veteran linebacker in his first season with the 49ers, declined to play when his number was called in the third quarter
Brooke Sutton/Getty; Michael Zagaris/San Francisco 49ers/Getty
De’Vondre Campbell wasn’t ready for some Thursday night football.
The San Francisco 49ers linebacker refused to enter the game when his number was called during the third quarter of the Niners-Los Angeles Rams game on Thursday, Dec. 12 — much to his teammates’ and coaches’ displeasure.
“Whatever his decision was, it wasn’t for this organization, it wasn’t for this team and that’s on him,” 49ers tight end George Kittle said in his postgame comments, after San Francisco’s 12-6 loss at Levi’s Stadium. “Not very happy about it. I would have had something to say. I wish I heard about it on the field, but I didn’t.”
Kittle continued, “It’s just dumb. It’s just stupid. It’s very immature. I just don’t see how you could do something like that to your team.”
Head coach Kyle Shanahan summed up the former Green Bay Packers player’s comments to him: "He said he didn't want to play today.”
With two other linebackers out, the team needed Campbell, despite his own seeming unhappiness about getting less playing time due to Dre Greenlaw’s return to the team on Thursday after he tore his Achilles during Super Bowl LVIII.
When Greenlaw went out of the game with knee soreness — and with linebacker Dee Winters also not playing — it was Campbell’s cue to take the field.
Instead, third-string linebacker Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles was inserted into the game.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
“Is that the reason we lost? Absolutely not … Try to win football games when someone doesn’t want to play football, especially when you’re suited up,” Kittle said. “It kind of puts you down, especially when you lose two linebackers.”
Now, Campbell’s status with the team is up in the air, much like the 49ers' playoff prospects.
"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."
A rare bright spot in the game, Greenlaw led the team with eight total tackles, three solo, at the half before he had to leave for his knee soreness.
In May, 49ers linebacker Fred Warner spoke to PEOPLE about the bond he shares with Greenlaw, and his devastation when the player went down last February in the big game.
“Yeah, those were real feelings,” Warner told PEOPLE. “In the moment, I was just going through whatever was natural when you lose a brother out there, especially one that I'm as close to Dre as anybody that I've ever played with, and so my heart just hurt for him in that moment, knowing what was ahead for him and obviously losing it for that game, especially because of the game that he was having."
Read the original article on People
