Niners HC Kyle Shanahan makes bold decision on De'Vondre Campbell after LB's refusal to play

San Francisco 49ers linebacker De'Vondre Campbell refused to play against the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday Night Football and decided to walk off the field before the game ended.

During the third quarter, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan told Campbell to return to the game. But he refused, and the situation became a mess.

The Niners vs. Rams game, broadcast by Amazon Prime, showed Campbell walking off the field and into the locker room during the fourth quarter. After the game, Shanahan told reporters that Campbell didn't want to play.

As a result of his bizarre actions, the 49ers are moving on from Campbell. Shanahan told reporters Friday that Campbell will either be released or suspended.

"The #49ers are moving on from LB De’Vondre Campbell, coach Kyle Shanahan said, after he refused to go back into the game on Thursday night upon being out of the starting lineup," per NFL Network's Ian Rapoport. "Shanahan said they are working out the semantics of how. Suspension is an option, as is release."

49ers players and coach Kyle Shanahan discuss De'Vondre Campbell's refusal to play in post-game interview

De'Vondre Campbell during an NFL game for San Francisco 49ers. (Credits: Getty)

Seeing and hearing the San Francisco 49ers talk about De'Vondre Campbell walking off the field added to the messy season that the 49ers have been having.

Everyone thought it was bizarre, but nobody felt more disrespected or surprised by the action than members of the 49ers team.

"That's somebody who doesn't want to play football, that's pretty simple," Coach Kyle Shanahan said. "I think our team and myself, we know how we feel about that, so we don't need to talk about him anymore."

Veteran tight end George Kittle said Campbell made a selfish decision and has never seen anyone do anything like that in his career.

"It's one person making a selfish decision," Kittle said. "I've never been around anybody that's ever done that, and I hope I'm never around anybody who does that again."

Starting cornerback Charvarius Ward said Campbell should have told the team beforehand that he didn't want to play instead of pulling off "some sucker s**t."

“If he didn’t want to play, he shouldn’t have dressed out," Ward said. "He could have told them that before the game. I feel like that was some sucker s**t that he did. Definitely hurt the team because Dee [Winters] went down."

Campbell is in his ninth NFL season. He played in 13 games for the 49ers this season and has 79 tackles and two pass deflections. His time with the 49ers has seemingly come to an end.

It is unknown if De'Vondre Campbell will look to play football in the future, but he likely won't be playing another snap for the rest of the season.