George Kittle on His Incredible Comeback, 49ers 3-0 Start & Brock Purdy!

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Now, back to Murph and Markus on The Sports Leader. Streaming live on thesportsleader.com and KNBR. The Sports Leader app. Murph and Markus is sponsored by Bigelow T. Grab a mug and tea proudly.

His helmet is off. Here we go, baby, nine is on three, one, two, three.

George Kittle (0:21)

Yeah!

SPEAKER_1 (0:22)

And his mic is on.

Larry Krueger (0:24)

That's a saccarone, baby.

SPEAKER_1 (0:26)

Time for our 49ers Player Of The Week with Murph and Markus.

George Kittle (0:30)

Sorry, I thought you were a saccarone, buddy.

SPEAKER_1 (0:32)

But hey, there'll be more on the Sports Leader.

Murph (0:35)

Well, only once a year do we get to get George Kittle as our Player Of The Week. You can pretty much lock up that he's a new Player Of The Week at some point. It comes early this year after two touchdowns on Sunday.

He's back. What a story after the January injury. It's only September and he's back on the field score and touchdowns. Let's get into it. George Kittle on the Boomer guest line is our Player Of The Week, sponsored by Bigelow Tea, Grab a Mug and Tea Proudly. He's also sponsored by Benjamin Moore Paints. Experience the Benjamin Moore Retail Difference at our independently owned authorized retailers today or at benjaminmoore.com.

So with Marcus out today, we got Larry Krueger in. So George, you got your boy Murph, you got Larry. Good morning, George. How are you?

George Kittle (1:15)

Fellas, how we doing? That was a hell of an ad read, man.

Murph (1:19)

Dude, I've been doing it for a while. Let me tell you that. Okay.

George Kittle (1:21)

So like you're a professional or something.

Murph (1:22)

Kind of like you coming off the snap. It's like I've done this before. I know this route. So once or twice. So, hey, man, let's go right. Let's start with the fun stuff, dude. Two touchdowns on Sunday.

When you put your head on that pillow Sunday night, how great the journey to come back from the injury and to be in the end zone twice in front of the home crowd.

How great was that feeling? And how are you feeling?

George Kittle (1:50)

Let's see. One, it felt amazing. Anytime that you get a dub in Levi's Stadium, it always feels great, specifically against a division arrival.

But yeah, I mean, it's been a long journey. And to be back on the field with the boys, playing in front of that awesome crowd, scoring touchdowns, it means a lot. Heart is definitely full. And feeling, I mean, feeling awesome. Definitely feeling three weeks into the season, I got some bumps and bruises, but it's all good. And it just makes you feel alive again. I'll tell you that much.

Murph (2:17)

Well, you were alive and well, man. 49ers are three and oh, getting ready for the Denver Broncos on Sunday.

George, when I looked at week one in Australia, you looked good, but I already feel like what you look like in week three is different than week one. Are my eyes deceiving me or do you feel better in week three than you did in week one?

George Kittle (2:40)

Oh, absolutely way better. I mean, I'm pretty sure I had about three practices on my belt going into Australia.

And there's always rust. You got to play football to get good at football. And so just each week, I've gotten more and more confident. Really, the number one thing is I've just been violently out of shape, and so feeling way better. Got my legs underneath me. Can actually, like, stay attached in the run game, not falling off the blocks. Can run more than two plays in a row without being winded. So I just think each week, week in and week out, the more practices I get, the more games I play.

It's going to just slowly click along and just get better and better.

Larry Krueger (3:16)

It's amazing that you made this comeback as fast as you did, George. You know, they were saying nine to 12 months was the estimate. You came back, you know, prior to eight months, and you seemed really intent on coming back for week one.

When did you kind of feel like week one was a possibility for the first time? Was there a time that it hit you where, hey, you know what, I think I can make it back for week one?

George Kittle (3:42)

Yeah, actually, that hit in about, I think it was just after July 4th.

I went and ran routes with Purdy, and I was just going to do some jog through stuff, and it just felt really good, and it was my first attempt at running routes, and I ran about 20 routes, all, you know, probably like 80 percent, and felt great about it. And I was like, oh, wow, like, I'm like, I'm not there yet, but I'm pretty close. And then we really just, you know, once I hit that, those markers, it kind of ups my, the rehab just a little bit extra, more running, more cutting, more field stuff. And then by the time I got to training camp, I truly believe I had a chance to play week one. I mean, I think I could have maybe came back a couple days earlier in the training camp, but, you know, we just don't want to be dumb about it. But that means we, we, we hit all the plans that we wanted to and even accelerated a little bit. So it was that, that July 4th, the running route session definitely helped.