{"id":499201,"date":"2026-02-25T19:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T19:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/499201\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T19:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T19:38:08","slug":"george-kittle-reveals-whether-achilles-tear-had-him-considering-nfl-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/499201\/","title":{"rendered":"George Kittle Reveals Whether Achilles Tear Had Him Considering NFL Retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Considering his age, 32-year-old tight end George Kittle would have been forgiven if he decided to hang it up for good after his season-ending Achilles<\/a> tear back in January. But to hear Kittle himself tell it, it sounds as though that thought never crossed his mind.<\/p>\n

Speaking with the Ross Tucker Podcast<\/a> in a clip released Tuesday morning (the actual conversation happened around the Super Bowl), a scooter-bound Kittle told host Tucker that his devastating injury had not prompted any retirement conversations.<\/p>\n

“Was there even 1% of you … that thought, ‘I’m gonna shut it down and move on [because of the tear]?'” Tucker asked Kittle.<\/p>\n

“No,” the tight answered quickly and decisively. “Not at all. My body will tell me when I can’t play anymore, or my wife will tell me I look like s—. One or the other. And I’ll trust her word on that because she likes when I play football. But I love it too much and I know I’ve got a lot of miles left in the tank at a high level.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI love football, and my body will tell me when I can’t play anymore. Or my wife will tell me I look like shit, one or the other.\u201d \ud83e\udd23\ud83e\udd23\ud83e\udd23
\u00a0@gkittle46<\/a> on if he considered retirement after his achilles tear: pic.twitter.com\/92Zeyrpm8N<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Ross Tucker Podcast (@RossTuckerPod) February 24, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

That’s certainly welcome news for 49ers fans, who were probably quite worried they’d seen the last of their favorite tight end when he was depressingly carted off the field in January.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the remark is also in keeping with comments Kittle made just a few weeks after the initial tear, when he suggested that a possible return to play could happen<\/a> “well before November” of 2026. <\/p>\n

Achilles tears, one of the more devastating injuries for athletes, can take around a year to recover from. But Kittle apparently got lucky with the placement of his; according to his surgeon, “the best-case scenario when you tear an Achilles is that you tear it up high, by your soleus, which is what I did. I had a clean tear,” he said in January.<\/p>\n

“And where the repair was is where there\u2019s more blood flow. And so it takes some time off the recovery time.\u201d<\/p>\n

We will certainly be hoping for a quick return. Kittle is a blast to watch on the field, and it really hurt seeing him go down<\/a>, even if you were rooting for the Birds. The TE had also missed time earlier in the season due to a hamstring injury suffered in Week 1, so it was just heartbreaking to know he’d been hampered again.<\/p>\n

We’ll be rooting for his eventual return, and are grateful we’ll get to watch him play again soon enough.<\/p>\n

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