After media reports suggested that George Kittle could be fined by the NFL for his T-shirt in the San Francisco 49ers game against the Dallas Cowboys, the tight end reacted defiantly.
Kittle turned heads with his “F…Dallas” T-shirt, which he wore under his jersey during his three-touchdown performance against the Cowboys and during the TD celebration after Jordan Mason’s 26-yard touchdown fourth quarter run showed. Since it was a personal message, he violated NFL rules and will likely receive a fine of a little less than $11,000. No problem for Kittle, however.
On the “Pat McAfee Show,” Kittle said of the action that he would “probably get fined.” “I wore a personalized t-shirt, maybe with an inappropriate word on it. So it is what it is. It was a decision I made, if they want to punish me for it, so be it!”
However, Kittle also emphasized that he did not regret the action: “100 percent. I would do it again.”
George Kittle: T-shirt tribute to Gary Plummer
Kittle also explained that the move was a tribute to Gary Plummer in the 1994 NFC Championship Game, when the then-Niners linebacker wore a similar shirt with the same message against the Cowboys. At the time, this duel was one of the biggest rivalries in the NFL. He also admitted that he had heard from one or two former 49ers after the action. “I would love to talk to Gary Plummer and get a little bit of his vibe.”
Meanwhile, Kittle does not have to fear any punishment from the 49ers themselves. Head coach Kyle Shanahan commented on the matter on Wednesday: “It’s just Kittle, WWE stuff, entertainment. It wasn’t really much. I just grinned.”
Only the opponent from Texas didn’t go down so well. Star defenseman Micah Parsons said on his podcast “The Edge with Micah Parsons” that from his perspective, it made Kittle “a lot more personal than it should have been.” His safety colleague Jayron Kearse, however, saw it more objectively: “I don’t have a problem with anything he did. If we had done our job and kept him out of the end zone, he couldn’t have done that.”