Whitner declares 49ers should cut Campbell as he refuses to play originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
NBC Sports Bay Area analysts Donte Whitner and Rod Brooks did not hold back 49ers linebacker De’Vondre Campbell after he refused to play in San Francisco’s loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday night.
“Cut him,” Whitner, who played 11 NFL seasons, said on “49ers Postgame Live” after San Francisco’s 12-6 loss. “That’s my opinion. Drop him. He hasn’t played well all season and then you get back an almost All-Pro linebacker who you know is coming back from injury, you know they’re going to put him in the starting lineup. ” lineup, you know you’re going to be his backup and then you tell the coaches, I’m not going to play in the game. I don’t want to play today. I would have cut you off there on match day.
“We don’t feel sorry for you. You’re a professional, you didn’t do your job and you saw the clear difference with Dre Greenlaw in the game, why they played him over Campbell. So stop him. That’s for Kyle Shanahan, that’s for the 49ers organization. You’re cutting this guy. There’s no way he’s going to stay on the team tomorrow.”
Campbell, who has played in all 13 49ers games this season, did not play Thursday when Greenlaw made his season debut after a lengthy rehabilitation from a torn Achilles tendon.
But after the game, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan explained what happened.
“He said he didn’t want to play today,” Shanahan said.
Brooks gave his opinion on the situation.
“That was a sucker move,” Brooks said. ‘That’s terrible. He quit his team. He quit his team. That’s the worst thing you can do.’
The 49ers signed Campbell, a nine-year NFL veteran, to a one-year, $5 million deal this offseason after he spent the past three years with the Green Bay Packers.
In addition to Shanahan, 49ers tight end George Kittle and cornerback Charvarius Ward were not happy with Campbell after the loss.
While it’s unclear whether the 49ers will cut Campbell, his tenure in San Francisco and the team’s playoff hopes both appear to be hanging by a thread.
