49ers suspend De’Vondre Campbell for final three games

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — De’Vondre Campbell’s expulsion from the San Francisco 49ers has come via an unpaid suspension for their final three games.

That discipline was announced in a two-line statement from general manager John Lynch just before noon as the 49ers (6-8) reconvene after Thursday’s dramatic 12-6 loss to the Los Angeles Rams in which Campbell refused to come off the bench and play a single snap.

“We have suspended De’Vondre Campbellc Sr. for three games due to conduct detrimental to the team. We will have no further comment on the matter,” Lynch’s statement read.

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 cannot join another team, if the 31-year-old wanted to extend his career.

The 49ers will practice today ahead of Sunday’s penultimate road game at the Miami Dolphins. Neither coach Kyle Shanahan nor Lynch is slated to speak to the media.

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 came down 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 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, the same leg in which he tore his Achilles 10 months earlier in the Super Bowl.

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. Jacobs returned to the New York Giants the next season to finish out his career.