Getty George Kittle of the San Francisco 49ers stands on the sideline during their preseason game against the Las Vegas Raiders at Levi's Stadium on August 29, 2021.
The wife of San Francisco 49ers star tight end George Kittle, Claire Kittle, had a passionate message for her husband after the season’s end.
It, unfortunately, didn’t end how the Kittles, the 49ers, or the fanbase wanted to. The Niners fell 20-17 to the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship on January 30, and now the process is starting all over again ahead of this fall.
Claire Kittle made the journey to SoFi Stadium to support her husband and San Francisco, just like she made the trip on a cold Wisconsin weekend for the game against the Green Bay Packers. Besides sharing a photo gallery from the game, Kittle offered an emotional message.
“G you are a constant inspiration to me & everyone around you,” Claire Kittle wrote. “The love you have for this game is so admirable. Your teammates love you with everything they have, it’s such a great group of men in that locker room. You were so resilient this year. Maybe your toughest year yet. You handled everything thrown at you with a calm confident attitude. You’re my super hero and I’ll always be rooting for you. I love you!”
Possibly the most notable detail is Kittle stating that this may be the “toughest year yet” for the tight end. There’s no concrete way to know what she’s referencing specifically, although Kittle did recently speak on his injury issues this year.
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Kittle Opens Up on Injury
Unfortunately, the San Francisco tight end has seemingly battled injuries his entire time as a 49er. He’s only played in every game of the season once (2018,) and otherwise has missed 14 total games over his five seasons.
After the loss to the Rams, Kittle was asked in the post-game presser if he was injured in the game after slowing getting up after a couple plays. Kittle offered a blunt, but revealing answer.
“I’ve been dealing with s— since Week 1, excuse my language,” Kittle said. “It’s football. You just deal with it. And I’ll just say it was a lower-body injury, the NHL life.”
Kittle had a productive year, but it was slightly below the heights he hit in the 2018 and 2019 seasons. Still, he totaled 910 receiving yards and six touchdowns in the regular season before adding 107 yards and a touchdown in the playoffs per PFR.
Kittle on What Rams Did Differently
At one point in his post-game press conference, Kittle was asked what the Rams did differently to win the game. San Francisco had won six-straight against Los Angeles coming into the NFC Championship, but the Rams did enough to snap the streak.
Obviously game footage and analysis tells more, but Kittle had a pretty clear distinction on his mind when he answered how the Rams countered the Niners offense.
“Without watching the tape, the biggest thing I noticed was that every time we did any of our motions they were blitzing through all the gaps,” Kittle said. “They just sent their linebackers down hill, or if they were in man coverage, their safeties would just blitz through if they were guarding me. Makes it kind of hard when they have 9-10 guys in the box.”
The Rams committed to stopping the run and the short and intermediate passing lanes, and it worked. Now, it will be on head coach Kyle Shanahan to figure out his response during the 2022 season.