SANTA CLARA – De’Vondre Campbell’s expulsion from the 49ers will come via an unpaid suspension for their final three games, according to NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport.
That discipline is expected later today as the 49ers (6-8) reconvene after Thursday’s dramatic defeat to the Los Angeles Rams, a 12-6 loss in which Campbell refused to come off the bench and play a single snap.
Campbell has not commented publicly since the game. By suspending him, the 49ers will avoid paying him $261,666 in salary and per-game bonuses, and they can try recouping $111,666 of his $3.35 million signing bonus for games missed, according to spotrac.com.
By the 49ers not releasing him or terminating his contract, Campbell can not join another team, if the 31-year-old wanted to extend his career.
The 49ers will practice at 1:30 p.m. today ahead of Sunday’s penultimate road game at the Miami Dolphins. Neither coach Kyle Shanahan nor general manager John Lynch are slated to speak to the media; players will be available to reporters in the locker room at approximately 2:40 p.m.
Campbell walked to the locker room early in the fourth quarter, after he refused to fill in for a shorthanded linebacker unit in the wake of injuries to Dre Greenlaw (knee, Achilles) and Dee Winters (neck).
Lynch retreated from his eighth-floor suite to confront and dispatch Campbell from the field, according to Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer in a Sunday report.
Shanahan, in Friday’s conference call with reporters, said he did not expect Campbell to play again for the 49ers as they were “working through the semantics” of his exodus. “His actions from the game, it’s not something you can do to your team or your teammates and still expect to be a part of our team,” Shanahan said.
Campell, a ninth-year veteran, joined the 49ers in March as a free agent on a one-year, $5 million deal. He served as the 49ers’ starting weak-side linebacker up until Greenlaw’s season debut Thursday night. Campbell was further demoted behind Winters as the No. 3, strong-side linebacker. Winters sustained a neck injury in the first half, and Greenlaw exited in the third quarter with pain in his left knee, which was the same leg in which he tore his Achilles 10 months earlier in the Super Bowl.
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Team-issued suspensions are rare. In 2012, running back Brandon Jacobs was suspended the final three regular-season games and released Dec. 31, having voiced frustration for months over his role and ultimately going on a social-media rant about “rotting away” in “by far the worst year I’ve ever had.” Jacobs returned to the New York Giants the next season to finish out his career.
