49ers tight end George Kittle epitomizes his team’s hard-charging, roughneck style. And he pays the price for it. Early in the 2021, he missed time with a calf injury.
In recent weeks, however, Kittle’s name was absent from the weekly practice reports, apart from a Wednesday on which he rested before the wild-card game at San Francisco. He last showed up on an injury report during Week 15, with a knee issue.
After Sunday’s loss to the Rams, a reporter pointed out that Kittle got up slowly in the second half against the Packers. “Now that the season’s over, can you say whether you’ve been dealing with anything, something these last few games?” Kittle was asked.
“I’ve been dealing with shit since Week One, but -- excuse my language -- it’s football you just deal with it,” Kittle said. “And I’ll just say it was a lower body injury. The NHL life.”
Kittle may have said enough to make the powers-that-be wonder whether the 49ers were sufficiently transparent and candid regarding Kittle’s “lower body injury” over “these last few games.” Then again, the NFL typically doesn’t do much about injury-reporting violations.
As legalized gambling proliferates, and as the potential implications of inside information becomes more obvious, the league seems to be even more determined to not shine a light on the gross inadequacies of a system that definitely results in the existence of valuable information being readily available, to anyone with the resources of creativity to track it down. Yes, plenty of inside information exists. It would be foolish to think that people with financial interests tied to the outcomes of games aren’t doing everything they can to get access to it.