Shawne Merriman Thinks 49ers' De'Vondre Campbell's NFL Career Likely Over

TMZ

It takes a lifetime to build a good reputation, and a single moment to ruin one ... and Shawne Merriman says that's exactly what 49ers LB De'Vondre Campbell is about to experience!

Transcript

00:00Yeah, man, I was pretty blown away, and obviously I've seen a lot of things, been around a lot

00:06of things, and I knew what was going to come from this when he refused to go back in the

00:11game.

00:12And it's one of these things that you build up your career, you do everything possible,

00:15and this one incident is what you're going to be labeled as going forward, no matter

00:19what happens, right?

00:20I don't think he's not going to be there on the team after this year.

00:23So whatever new team he goes to, if a team decides to pick him up, he's going to be labeled

00:27as that.

00:28He's getting out of this, and it's a shame, because that one second to make a decision

00:33kind of erases everything you've done in your career.

00:37And I saw it coming as soon as it happened, and I don't think I've ever seen anything

00:40like it.

00:41What would you have done, Sean, if this is someone on your defense, how do you handle

00:45it?

00:46If you're a vet, what do you do?

00:47Do you say something to him?

00:49Do you not?

00:50Do you isolate him?

00:51What do you do?

00:52Yeah, you don't want to handle it in public, right?

00:54Because you don't know how it goes, too, and certain guys handle things a lot different,

00:59right?

01:00So you go to him in public, and he might take the offense that he's getting called out in

01:02front of everyone else and react to it.

01:04So a guy like that, I'm going to wait till we get back in the locker room and have a

01:07conversation with him, so he doesn't feel the pressure to respond in front of everyone

01:11else.

01:12But let me tell you, man, one thing that makes football great is it's the ultimate team game.

01:16There's nothing, in my opinion, there's nothing like football, because in every other sport,

01:20you have one or two stars on your team, you can win.

01:23You can win games, you can win the championship if you have one or two stars.

01:26In football, you can't do it.

01:27You need all 11 guys to execute on one play in order for it to be successful.

01:32And so when you got that one guy who you can't count on anymore, he's done, and you're always

01:38going to look at that guy the same way.

01:40And that's why I hope that he reflects on what happened, and I think his reputation

01:45is done.

01:46I'd be shocked if another team decides to pick him up after the season, because he now is

01:51going to be deemed unreliable.

01:53And that says a lot, doesn't it?

01:54Because he is a nine-year vet, he's not a young guy anymore, but he's an effective player.

01:59He was all pro when he was with Green Bay, who is a good player.

02:04But this, like you said, football requires cohesion and all that, and it just doesn't

02:10seem like it would be worth it for another team to take a chance on someone who may be

02:13unreliable.

02:14I don't think they will, because automatically, he walks into the locker room with a stigma.

02:20And when you start the off-season workouts, all the way into your OTAs, your mini-camps,

02:25your training camps, that is when the bond, the brotherhood is built with all these guys.

02:29And you go through this process in order to count on one another when a season comes and

02:34when a season happens.

02:35You know, guys are tired in the fourth quarter.

02:38We go back and watch the film the next day and see who quit, who didn't run to the ball,

02:43who gave up.

02:44And those guys get labeled right then and there.

02:47So when you have a guy that's blatantly refusing to go into the game, there's no fixing that.

02:51And mind you, there's a lot of things that happen in the locker room.

02:54There's fights, there's arguments, there's disagreements.

02:57There's all kinds of stuff that guys would eventually get over.

03:00They are not getting over it when someone quitting and not going into the game.

03:04That part of it is not fixable, in my opinion.

03:08Sean, I think people are obviously trying to figure out reasons, explanations for why

03:13the 49ers have struggled this season.

03:16Does this say anything bigger about their team, the culture inside the locker room?

03:20Is there anything more you can take from this, or is this an isolated incident in your mind?

03:25I think it's an isolated incident.

03:26There's no overlooking the fact the amount of injuries that these guys had and the amount

03:30of key injuries, right?

03:31It's not like this is a banked-up team.

03:33They lost their stars, right?

03:35And McCaffrey, you can go down the list of just who's injured right now on the injured

03:39list and some of their key players.

03:41So injuries definitely played a big part of it.

03:43I think this is an isolated incident.

03:45It doesn't seem like this is a team that is undisciplined or unwilling to go the extra

03:50mile and there's no cohesiveness there.

03:54This seems like a team that's together.

03:55I think this is an isolated incident of one individual who decided that he put in his

03:59head that he's not going to go back into the game for whatever his reasons were at that

04:03time.

04:04And ultimately, it might be the biggest mistake of his career, if not the biggest mistake

04:08of his life.

04:10Because let me tell you, after he retires and he's done playing, people will never forget

04:16what he did.

04:17They will never forget him quitting on the team.

04:18They'll never forget him not being reliable.

04:22So this is something he's going to have to deal with for a very long time.

04:26It would seem to me, like you said, I don't think it's something with the culture looking

04:29back at this year, but it's something if you did not handle in the right way, if they allowed

04:33this to happen, Sean, that could then, it seems like to me, it could sort of, I don't

04:38know, have a bad effect on the team.

04:41Is that true, that they needed to basically say, hey, you're done, you're not going to

04:43play for us anymore?

04:44A hundred percent.

04:45I think the Cal Shanahan, that organization had to set the tone to let everyone know that

04:50this is not going to be tolerated here.

04:54And if they did, then I would, I would come back and say, if they did let it happen, and

04:58we showed up and he's on the field the following week, I would say, yeah, they got a culture

05:01problem because this is something that they're used to dealing with.

05:04This is not their way.

05:05This is not who that team is.

05:07This is not the product that they want to put out there.

05:10So they had to, you know, slam down the hammer on him to make sure that everyone knows that

05:13this is not who we are and we're not going to tolerate it going forward.

05:16Sean, do you think if he had, and I don't know where he stands on this, Devondre, but

05:21if he today said, look, I know I made a mistake and I got emotional in the moment, I wanted

05:26to play and, you know, I was upset that I was pulled for Dre Greenlaw.

05:31I mean, is, do you think there's anything he could do to salvage, not his time with

05:34the Niners, but maybe some sort of career going forward?

05:38He has to come out with a very heartfelt message and how he messed up.

05:42Everybody I think will start to understand that critical time that he made a very, very

05:46dumb decision and at least put him in a position to have an opportunity somewhere else.

05:51If he comes out and if he doesn't say anything, he's done.

05:53I just don't see another team taking a chance on someone that you can't count on and a public

06:00that was made, something that was made a public matter.

06:02This is not something that happened in the game where he quit or he just ran to a play.

06:06This is out there.

06:07We know about this.

06:08And this is going to echo around the NFL.

06:10So unless he comes out and make a heartfelt apology and how he made a terrible decision,

06:17I don't believe he'll never line up to play another snap in the NFL again.

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