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During the San Francisco 49ers loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday night football, 12-6, there was an interesting moment where linebacker De'Vondre Campbell would leave to the locker room in the middle of the game without injury. 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan would flat-out say that Campbell didn't want to play after a few players went down with injuries and just left, garnering a blunt response from ESPN's Stephen A. Smith.
“If it were me, he would have been cut before he left the locker room,” Smith said. “He wouldn't have made it out of the locker room as a San Francisco 49er. And I'll be honest with you: his career is in grave jeopardy, and it should be. You don't want a teammate like that. De'Vondre Campbell should be ashamed of himself. There's no excuse for what he did, and there have been examples, and I'm going to defer to NFL players, I didn't play, but here's the deal.”
“There are certain things you don't need to be an actual participant in to understand how egregious it is,” Smith continued. “And this is one of those situations. I would need further understanding if he did it before the game. I would need further understanding if, you know, you had an argument with the coach and you went home, or whatever, you said, bump it, I get that part that involves a lot more introspection.”
49ers' De'Vondre Campbell gets “egregious” take from Stephen A. Smith
As Smith would mention in his thoughts, Campbell's teammates, such as 49ers tight end George Kittle, would not hold back and call it an “ignorant” and “dumb” move. Even 49ers defensive back Charvarius Ward would call it a “sucker” move and sees Campbell being cut for his actions.
“But I don't need much to understand that in the middle of a game that you dressed for, that you told the team you were available for two of your teammates, went down, the coaching staff comes to you to play,” Smith said. “Your teammates are looking for you to play and be healthy and ready to go. You said, ‘No, I don't want to play.' And then got up and walked off the field into the locker room. You heard what George Kittle said; you heard what his other teammates said.”
“I don't blame them one bit, that is as egregious as it gets, as far as I'm concerned,” Smith continued. “Yes, we should not be defined by our worst moment. I get that part, but it's really, really hard to overcome you not even thinking about your teammates and saying, ‘Hey, I'm not going to be there for y'all,' and in the middle of the action…I can't imagine anything worse than that.”
Campbell's decision to leave the game is one of a plethora of reasons to display how disappointing of a season it's been for the 49ers, as they are currently 6-8 with their next game against the Miami Dolphins on Dec. 22.
