Even the All-Pro selection on his resume isn’t going to help De’Vondre Campbell escape a quitter label, one former NFL star said.
Campbell, who started 12 games for the 49ers this season but was replaced by a healthy Dre Greenlaw, refused to go in the game Thursday after Greenlaw was re-injured.
He walked off the field and back to the locker room in the third quarter, and head coach Kyle Shanahan later said Campbell won’t play again for the 49ers this season.
De’Vondre Campbell walks off the field during the 49ers’ game on Dec. 12. AP
Shawne Merriman said that De’Vondre Campbell’s NFL career
is likely over. Getty Images
“I think his reputation is done,” former Pro Bowl linebacker Shawne Merriman said on the TMZ Sports TV Show. “I’d be shocked if another team decides to pick him up after the season because now he is going to be deemed unreliable.”
Merriman explained how teams watch film together the day after a game and noticed “who quit, who didn’t run to the ball, who gave up. And those guys get labeled right then and there.”
It won’t be hard to identify Campbell — who was a First-Team All-Pro with the Packers in 2021 — since he won’t even be on the film.
“When you have a guy blatantly refusing to go in a game, there’s no fixing that,” Merriman said. “There’s a lot of things that happen in the locker room — fights, arguments, disagreements, all kinds of stuff that guys eventually get over. They are not getting over it when someone quits and is not going in the game. That part of it is not fixable, in my opinion.”
Merriman, the former first-round draft pick of the Chargers, seems to be spot on despite being out of the NFL since 2012.
Shawne Merriman was a former first-round pick by the Chargers. Getty Images
49ers cornerback Charvarius Ward expected Campbell to be cut soon and tight end George Kittle called Campbell’s decision “stupid” and “very immature” while indicating that he hopes to never have a teammate who does that again.
“It’s one of these things that you build up your career — you do everything possible — and this one incident is what you’re going to be labeled as going forward no matter what happens,” Merriman said.
He continued, “There’s no getting out of this. It’s a shame because that one second to make a decision kind of erases everything you’ve done in your career.”
The Ravens suspended receiver Diontae Johnson for Sunday’s game against the Giants for refusing to enter the team’s last game before a bye week.