SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — The San Francisco 49ers suspended linebacker De’Vondre Campbell for the rest of the regular season after he refused to enter a game after losing his starting job.
General manager John Lynch announced the news on Monday that Campbell was suspended for three games for conduct detrimental to the team.
The news came four days after Campbell's refusal to go into a game against the Los Angeles Rams was decried by coaches and teammates as a “selfish” act. Coach Kyle Shanahan said Friday that Campbell would no longer be part of the team, with the only question whether that would be by a suspension or an outright release.
The team opted for the suspension. The Collective Bargaining Agreement allows teams to suspend a player for up to four games without pay for conduct detrimental to the team and fine them one week's pay.
“I just lost all respect,” cornerback Deommodore Lenoir said Monday. “I’m a person that’s going 110% every play. ... I just feel like he’s a cancer to the team.”
Campbell makes about $67,000 in base salary each week under the one-year $5 million contract he signed in March. Campbell also will miss the chance to earn $60,000 in weekly roster bonuses and the Niners could try to recoup about $111,000 from Campbell's signing bonus.
Had the 49ers waived Campbell, he would have had the opportunity to be claimed or sign with another team.
Campbell had started 12 of the first 13 games of the season and played 90% of defensive snaps for the 49ers but was benched Thursday night after Dre Greenlaw came back for his first game since tearing his left Achilles tendon in last season’s Super Bowl.
When the 49ers wanted to put Campbell in the game in the third quarter because Greenlaw was sidelined with soreness in his Achilles tendon, Campbell refused, something Shanahan said has never happened to him in his time as a head coach or an assistant in the NFL.
Defensive end Nick Bosa said he got a sense of Campbell's frustration before the game but didn't say anything at the time.
“In the locker room before the game, I heard some complaining,” Bosa said. “I was going to say something but didn’t because I didn’t want to create more of a distraction. But I kind of felt it. I kind of saw the foreshadowing. I definitely didn’t think it was going to result in that.”
Bosa said he doesn't regret not trying to make it an issue before the game because “if he was going to do that then he’s not the type of guy to be here.”
Campbell walked off the field with a towel draped over his head and went into the locker room before the end of the game with the Rams that almost ended the 49ers’ playoff hopes. Shanahan said he didn’t send Campbell to the locker room and didn’t know why he left the field.
Campbell’s decision left his teammates angered and bewildered after the game and that hadn't changed a few days later. But Bosa said he doesn't see Campbell's actions as a reflection of a team that has lost its way.
“This locker room is great,” he said. “It’s always been great. But sometimes when you bring somebody who’s older in from a different place, you don’t know. He was a good dude. It’s not like I didn’t like him. But there’s no issues in this locker room.”
The 31-year-old Campbell signed in the offseason with San Francisco after being cut by Green Bay in March. He had been an All-Pro in 2021 for the Packers but his play fell off the last two seasons in Green Bay.
That led to Campbell complaining on social media that he was misused by Green Bay. He expressed excitement about being with a new team but he never got back to his All-Pro level. Campbell had a few bright moments in San Francisco this season but struggled frequently with tackling and in coverage.
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San Francisco 49ers' De'Vondre Campbell walks to the locker room during the second half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams in Santa Clara, Calif., Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024. (Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
San Francisco 49ers linebacker De'Vondre Campbell jogs onto the field before an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams in Santa Clara, Calif., Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)
San Francisco 49ers' De'Vondre Campbell walks to the locker room during the second half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams in Santa Clara, Calif., Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024. (Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faced the biggest test of his political career after Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, long one of his most powerful and loyal ministers, resigned from the Cabinet on Monday.
The stunning move raised questions about how much longer the prime minister of nearly 10 years — whose popularity has plummeted due to concerns about inflation and immigration — can stay on as his administration scrambles to deal with incoming U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
Trudeau swiftly named longtime ally and friend Dominic LeBlanc, the pubic safety minister who recently joined him at dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, to replace Freeland.
After being sworn in, LeBlanc told reporters he and Trudeau are focused on the cost of living facing Canadians and on finding common ground with Trump on border security and economic issues.
“I’m very confident that we can continue to do the necessary work,” LeBlanc said.
Opposition leader Jagmeet Singh, whose party Trudeau's ruling Liberals have relied upon to stay in power, called on Trudeau to resign earlier Mondayy. The main opposition Conservatives demanded an election.
“He has to go,” NDP leader Singh said.
Freeland, who was also deputy prime minister, said Trudeau had told her on Friday he no longer wanted her to serve as finance minister and offered her another role in the Cabinet. But she said in her resignation letter that the only “honest and viable path” was to leave the Cabinet.
“For the past number of weeks, you and I have found ourselves at odds about the best path forward for Canada,” Freeland said.
Freeland and Trudeau disagreed about a two-month sales tax holiday and 250 Canadian dollar ($175) checks to Canadians that were recently announced. Freeland said Canada is dealing with Trump's threat to impose sweeping 25% tariffs and should eschew “costly political gimmicks" it can “ill afford.”
“Our country is facing a grave challenge,” Freeland said in her letter. “That means keeping our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war.”
A Liberal party official said Freeland was offered a position as minister in charge of Canada-U.S. relations without portfolio and without a department. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of not being authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said the position would have been in name only and wouldn't have come with any of the tools Freeland previously had when she negotiated trade with the United States.
Freeland, who chaired a Cabinet committee on U.S. relations, had been set to deliver the fall economic statement and likely announce border security measures designed to help Canada avoid Trump's tariffs. Trump has threatened to impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico unless the neighbors stem the numbers of migrants and drugs.
The statement shows a much larger deficit than expected for the fiscal year and more than a billion for border security.
Trudeau has said he plans on leading the Liberal Party into the next election, but some party members have said they don't want him to run for a fourth term, and Freeland's departure was a huge blow.
No Canadian prime minister in more than a century has won four straight terms.
The federal election has to be held before October. The Liberals must rely on the support of at least one other major party in Parliament, because they don’t hold an outright majority themselves. If the opposition New Democratic Party, or NDP, pulls support, an election can be held at any time.
Singh said all options are on the table.
“Mr. Trudeau’s government is over,” Opposition Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-François Blanchet said. “He must acknowledge that and act accordingly. The departure of his most important ally, his finance minister, is the end of this government.”
Trudeau channeled the star power of his father, late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, in 2015, when he reasserted the country’s liberal identity after almost a decade of Conservative Party rule.
But Canadians are now frustrated by the rising cost of living and other issues, including immigration increases following the country’s emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As a country we have to project strength,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said. “It’s chaos right now up in Ottawa.”
Justin Trudeau’s legacy includes opening the doors wide to immigration. He also legalized cannabis and brought in a carbon tax intended to fight climate change.
Freeland also said in her letter that Canadians “know when we are working for them, and they equally know when we are focused on ourselves. Inevitably, our time in government will come to an end."
Separately, Trudeau has been trying to recruit Mark Carney, the former head of the Bank of England and Bank of Canada, to join his government. Carney has long been interested in entering politics and becoming the leader of the Liberal Party. It wasn't immediately clear if Carney has agreed to join Trudeau's Cabinet.
“Freeland was not only finance minister but also deputy prime minister and, until a couple of years ago, was seen as Trudeau’s heir as Liberal leader and prime minister,” said Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto.
Wiseman said leaks from the prime minister’s office suggest that Freeland was a poor communicator.
“There was talk about her becoming foreign minister again and that would have been a good fit for her, but the stab in the back from the prime minister's office cast the die,” Wiseman said.
Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, called Freeland's resignation a political earthquake.
“This is clearly a minority government on life support but, until now, the (opposition) NDP has rejected calls to pull the plug on it," Béland said. It’s hard to know whether this resignation will force the NDP to rethink its strategy.”
Dominic LeBlanc, Canada's Minister of Finance, Public Safety and Intergovernmental Affairs, participates in a news conference after a swearing in ceremony at Rideau Hall, in Ottawa, Ontario, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, left, looks on as Dominic LeBlanc, center, is sworn in as finance minister by Clerk of the Privy Council John Hannaford, right, during a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, Ontario, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)
Dominic LeBlanc, front left, is sworn in as finance minister by Clerk of the Privy Council John Hannaford, right, during a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, Ontario, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, congratulates Dominic LeBlanc, left, after LeBlanc was sworn in as finance minister at a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, Ontario, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)
Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, right, and Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc arrive for a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press via AP)
Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland delivers remarks on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press via AP)
Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland delivers remarks on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press via AP)
