The San Francisco 49ers and the Las Vegas Raiders filled needs at the QB position with Sam Darnold and Jimmy Garoppolo respectively.
There are many ways that an athlete can cope with a tough loss. Some methods, however, are far less common than they used to be.
George Kittle was introduced to one method after a heartbreaking 33-30 loss to the Green Bay Packers in 2018 at Lambeau Field.
The 49ers tight end joined comedian Theo Von on his podcast, "This Past Weekend," where he was asked about cigarette smoking in the NFL and if there are any players who still partake off the field. Not only are there players that still do, but Kittle, at one point, shared a locker room with someone who smoked after games.
"I had a teammate (in 2018) who after practice and after games would smoke cigarettes," Kittle recalled. "I'm not going to say who it is, but we lost my (second) year in Lambeau, Aaron Rodgers did like a 30-second drive to kick a field goal to win the game. And this was when we were (1-4) too, so we almost went into Lambeau and won. They were a much better team than us, but we somehow kept it close.
"I go to the shower and he's in there smoking a cigarette and I was like, 'Hey man, I'll take one of those if you don't mind man,' Hopefully I don't get in trouble for that, that's probably illegal. I'm sorry, NFL, don't get mad at me," Kittle joked. "But I did do that one time, that was a really fun one. One of the coaches walked in and looked at us and just walked out of the showers. I was like, 'Dude, give us a sec, man.'"
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That certainly is one way to take the edge off.
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Kittle and his teammate certainly shared a special bonding moment that day.