Kyle Shanahan had never seen anything like it in his career.
In the early fourth quarter, after the Rams scored a lead-taking (and ultimately game-winning) field goal to make it 9-6, linebacker De'Vondre Campbell went into the 49ers' locker room, accompanied by a staffer.
It was a glaring red flag after Campbell, who was not on the injury report, and not announced to have an illness, had spent most of the second half sitting on the bench, stewing, with a towel over his head. After Dre Greenlaw came out of the game, he sat down next to him, talked to him for a while, and walked away.
Greenlaw, a player who had just fought for months to recover from a torn Achilles was being faced with the selfishness of someone whose focus was squarely on himself after losing his spot. Campbell, as Shanahan revealed, refused to come into the game in the third quarter.
"He said he didn't want to play today," Shanahan said. "He did when I asked him why he didn't want to go in."
Shanahan said he's never experienced that. The plan was for Campbell to play when Greenlaw came out of the game. Instead, after a neck injury to Dee Winters, the 49ers were down to Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles, who ached his way through the game.
There was an abundance of criticism for Campbell to be had. Charvarius Ward stated the obvious; Campbell is done as a 49er.
“I mean he a professional, he been playing for a long time," said Charvarius Ward. "I mean, if he didn’t want to play, he shouldn’t have dressed out. He could’ve told them that before the game. I feel like that was some sucker shit that he did. It definitely hurt the team because Dee went down and we needed a linebacker. I think Flann was banged up too. For him to do that, that’s some sucker stuff to me. He probably going to get cut soon.”
George Kittle made his displeasure quite clear. He said it wasn't the reason the 49ers lost by any stretch, but given their lack of depth at linebacker and injury situation, it objectively hurt the team. He couldn't quite wrap his head around the decision, and was frustrated he didn't hear about it in the moment.
"I'm a leader on the team, and if that is something that is being a distraction on the sideline, I would love to voice my own opinion in the moment," Kittle said. "We're past that moment, so it doesn't matter what I wish I could have said or wish I could have done, but I don't like distractions on the sideline. I think that's ignorant. I think it's just dumb. It's just stupid, and it's very immature. I just don't see how you can do something like that to your team."
The question, of course, is whether this is an indication of some larger schism. Campbell is obviously a veteran outside of the 49ers' program who was the 49ers' second choice in the offseason to Eric Kendricks, who reneged on a deal to go to the Cowboys.
Kittle said it's an individual acting of his own accord.
"It's more of a one person making a, like Mooney said, a selfish decision," Kittle said. "And I'm with Mooney on that, and I've never been around anybody that's ever done that, and I hope I'm never around anybody that does that again."
While the 49ers can fairly claim this is a one-off, there is a real threat that they could lose their standard. With new players and some vets from outside of the scheme, could they shut things down? Could players be making business decisions?
"If you're healthy, you should play and I think momentum created in the next few games could be really big for the offseason," said Nick Bosa. "We're going to find out who wants to be a Niner."