The De’Vondre Campbell saga isn’t done quite yet.
Fox’s Jay Glazer on the network’s NFL pregame show reported some fascinating details about Campbell’s sudden exit from the San Francisco 49ers’ Week 15 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
First, according to Glazer, the 49ers are opting to explore a suspension route instead of an outright release for the veteran linebacker.
“The 49ers are trying to suspend him,” Glazer said. “They’re working with the league office to see what’s the max they can do. Even if he wanted to come and apologize and come back – players don’t want him.”
This isn’t a huge surprise. 49ers players were vocally displeased with Campbell after Thursday’s game. Head coach Kyle Shanahan on Friday also made it clear the club was done with Campbell after he refused to enter their Week 15 bout in relief of linebacker Dre Greenlaw.
However, it wasn’t the coaching staff that forced Campbell to leave the sideline and go to the locker room. Per Glazer, that was done by general manager John Lynch and his ‘Red 47’ alter ego.
“But you’re asking what happened behind the scenes,” Glazer said. “They started seeing about the second quarter that he was refusing to go in. So John Lynch actually went down there and confronted De’Vondre, and said ‘you don’t want to go in the game? You’re refusing?’ So it was Lynch who sent him to the locker room.
“By the way, I’ve got players who called me after and said ‘hey, we’ve heard you talk about this alter ego of John Lynch, this 47 Red character – man we saw it. That dude is crazy!'”
It’s not typical that a player will actively quit on his team the way Campbell did, but knowing that Lynch’s alter ego is looming may keep it from happening again any time soon in San Francisco.
