© San Francisco 49ers | 2020 Sep 2
The contract negotiations between George Kittle and the 49ers took long enough to make 49ers fans nervous. Turns out — at least for Kittle — it was worth the wait.
The NFL’s best tight end walked away from the negotiating table with the biggest TE contract in NFL history, a five-year, $75 million deal with $40 million guaranteed. That last part was the most important to Kittle, who explained why with TKB on Thursday.
“For me the guarantees, because I play the game in a very physical manner, so having guarantees like this is what you’re going to get so I don’t have to worry about it,” Kittle said on KNBR. “Just go out and play football the way you’ve been playing your entire life, that was kind of my goal, and I got that done, I got that accomplished.”
Kittle’s greatest strength is also his greatest weakness. The reckless abandon he plays with is unmatched in the league, but that same contact he craves has led to him having to play through injuries a times during his career. One day those injuries may be too hard to play through, but Kittle didn’t want to have the consequences of that weighing on his mind.
“When you play football and you have other distractions, you’re thinking about other things, football is really hard, so I can go to sleep at night knowing I’m taken care of, my family is taken care of, I don’t have to worry about anything. I can go out there and play the same football game I’ve been playing, and just try to play at an elite level.”
Listen to the full interview below.