George Kittle and Brock Purdy take punishments seriously. And more often than not, it brings a good laugh out of the people around the two San Francisco 49ers players.
Following the training session on Wednesday, the reporters caught up with Kittle inside the locker room wearing a helmet that did not belong to the 49ers. It had the stickers and decals of the Iowa State Cyclones.
The reporters asked him the reason behind the special look, and Kittle replied that it was punishment as his alma mater, the Iowa Hawkeyes, lost to the Cyclones last week. The all-pro tight end kept shifting his head inside the helmet because his big head and long hair filled up every inch of it.
Ahh! It’s too small.George Kittle said while trying his best to scoot the helmet belt down his chin, according to Cam Inman of the Mercury News.
One reporter asked Kittle how fast Brock Purdy texted him after the Cyclones won.
Pretty quickly. Yeah, he texted me the score instantly. I said ‘Thank you, Brock…’
Another reporter asked whether Purdy had to do the same if the Hawkeyes won instead of the Cyclones.
[Yeah] the exact same thing as me right now. It smells like it. I had my Iowa helmet out here too. I tried to put a dark visor on this, but Brock did not want me to do that, but it’s not ideal [so] it makes sense.Kittle replied wearing Purdy’s old helmet.
George Kittle wearing Brock Purdy’s Iowa State helmet after Iowa’s loss Saturday pic.twitter.com/o8NG2wWQTT
— Cam Inman (@CamInman) September 11, 2024
The Cyclones defeated the ranked Hawkeyes by just one point in the second game of the 2024 college football season. Last year, Purdy wore a giant head of the Hawkeyes mascot as punishment for the Cyclones’ defeat.
George Kittle is close to breaking a major tight record
Since debuting for the Niners in 2017, George Kittle has been the image of consistency. Besides blocking players for his quarterback and runners, the 6-foot-4, 250-pound player is also equally good at catching the ball.
In 98 games in the league, Kittle has 464 receptions, 6314 receiving yards, and 37 touchdowns. If Brock Purdy can find him 5 times against the Minnesota Vikings in week 2, he will surpass Rob Gronkowski. The former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers TE caught 468 passes from Tom Brady in his first 100 games in the NFL.
George Kittle needs 6 receptions vs Minnesota to surpass Rob Gronkowski (469 receptions) for the fifth-most receptions by a tight end in his first 100 career games in NFL history, per NFL Communications. #49ers
However, Kittle still has miles to go before actually being compared to Gronkowski, who won 4 Super Bowls during his career. If Gronk continued beyond 32 (his age during retirement), then the numbers would have been much higher compared to 9286 yards from 621 receptions and 92 touchdowns.
3x Super Bowl winner Travis Kelce, 34, is still going strong and surpassed both Kittle and Gronk in several areas. Kelce to this date has 910 receptions in 160 games for 11,362 receiving yards and 74 touchdowns.
