NFL star George Kittle has given Melbourne a mega shoutout after his trip down under, posting the Herald Sun’s front page to his millions of Instagram followers and thanking the city’s “awesome people”.
Kittle, who is captain of the San Francisco 49ers, led his team to glory at the season opener against the LA Rams in front of a cheering crowd of 100,021 people at the MCG on Friday.
Full of praise for Melbourne’s hospitality, Kittle shared a touching sign-off to his 1.7m Instagram followers with pictures from game day and of his teammates enjoying the sun during their week-long stay in the city.
Included in the photo dump was a shot of the Saturday Herald Sun’s front page, starring Kittle’s wide-eyed reaction to the MCG blockbuster.
“Thanks to Melbourne and it’s awesome people for embracing the team all week,” he said.
“We had blast getting the Dub at the G!!!”
The post comes as the Herald Sun can reveal representatives from the 49ers personally called NewsCorp to share their praise for Melbourne, saying they were blown away by the support they received in town.
The San Francisco team has taken out a full-page ad to feature in the upcoming edition of the Sunday Herald Sun in the sport section to thank Melbourne.
The team also shared gratitude for Herald Sun journalist Jon Ralph, who before the clash flew to the US to embed himself in the 49ers pre-season training camp.
He also headed to LA to get an exclusive look at the Rams.
Melburnians are still on cloud nine after the blockbuster, with crowds treated to a US-sized production, featuring a halftime show from Disney legends the Jonas Brothers and a joint Australian Defence Force and US Marine Corps flyover.
Talks of making the NFL blockbuster an annual event are already under way.