George Kittles body bag quote from Week 18 continues to ring in Rams ears ahead of title

April 24, 2024

Get ready for a lot of old George Kittle quotes this week.

There was what the tight end said in the closing minutes of the 49ers’ loss to the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV.

“I will be back here,” Kittle, mic’d up by NFL Films, said while standing next to Ahkello Witherspoon but seeming to be speaking more to himself. “I will be back here and I will be back with a mother f—ing vengeance. You will not get the best of me. No sir.”

Kittle and the 49ers, of course, would make their long-planned return to the Super Bowl with a win Sunday in the NFC Championship Game against the Rams, and he said the quote runs through his mind every so often.

“I said those words because I actually believe those words,” he said Thursday. “We’re on the doorstep. And this whole season actually means nothing unless we get this win. That’s all we’re focused on — getting this win and giving ourselves an opportunity to go back down to L.A. again and play in another game.”

The other quote is one that Kittle uttered earlier this month and that the Rams won’t let die.

In the run-up to the teams’ Week 18 game, Kittle was asked a question: Why do the 49ers match up so well against the Rams, whom they’d beaten — at that point — five straight times.

Kittle’s answer lasted 1 minute, 25 seconds. It began with him heaping compliments on the Rams players and ended with him saying the 49ers play a particularly physical brand of football and that they always try to emphasize that against Los Angeles.

“When our wide receivers decide to go hit safeties in the mouth on a run play, it kind of changes the game,” he said. “You either have to match that intensity or get out of the way. Sometimes, guys get out of the way, but I think it’s going to definitely show up this Sunday about who’s the more physical team. And it’s going to be kind of a body bag game, in my opinion.”

Kittle has said that last bit — about it being a “body bag game” — must have been pinned to the Rams’ bulletin boards because he heard it being chirped back to him during the Week 18 game, especially in the first half when the Rams took a 17-0 lead.

It was still being discussed in Southern California on Thursday. Asked about Kittle, Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris said the tight end was one of his favorite players in the league.

“When you talk about George Kittle, you’re talking about a competitor, you’re talking about a tough guy,” Morris said. “He came out, he talked about the body bag game (that week) and he put us in one. Now, it’s our time to pay him back.”

Teams used to take newspaper clippings that contained unflattering comments about them and tack them to their bulletin boards.

The 49ers’ defensive coordinator, DeMeco Ryans, noted that those kinds of comments are now ubiquitous due to the internet and social media and doubted players use so-called “bulletin-board material” the way they might have decades ago. The former linebacker said he’s never had much use for it.

“I always look at bulletin-board material as far as, how long is that going to last?” he said. “When the game is on the line — third or fourth quarter — no one is thinking about what was said throughout the weeks. If you have guys and it takes bulletin-board material to get them to play harder and to do their job better, then you’ve probably got the wrong guys out there.”

Kittle had a similar take: “If you have to find inspiration to play? Eh, it is what it is.”

Odds and ends

• Cornerback Ambry Thomas (knee) practiced in full for the first time since just before the wild-card playoff game in Dallas, but tackle Trent Williams (ankle) was missing for the second straight day. Williams hurt his right ankle in the third quarter Saturday, and though he was seen hobbling around during and after the game, he remained in the contest.

He did come out of the game, by rule, on one of the plays after which he reported as an eligible receiver (one of them was a failed fourth down, so the offense was off the field for the next play). Both snaps had Williams, who weighs nearly 330 pounds, go in motion as a lead blocker. Kyle Shanahan said it used to be that only fullback Kyle Juszczyk ran that play. But the team started having tight ends, then running backs, then receivers do it.

“And he was the only guy left, and he’s probably the best guy you can imagine ever doing it,” Shanahan said. “I can’t believe it’s legal. It’s scary for me to even watch.”

Said offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel: “Have you ever been on a street when a car is driving at you? … There’s not a man that moves that fast with that much power.”

• As for Thomas, he’s in line to start at cornerback opposite Emmanuel Moseley. The nickel cornerback will be K’Waun Williams, who missed the Week 18 matchup in which Rams receiver Cooper Kupp caught all seven of his targets for 118 yards and a touchdown.

• Running back Elijah Mitchell (knee), who missed Wednesday’s session, was limited Thursday. Fellow running back Jeff Wilson (ankle), however, missed practice. On both days, Shanahan said prior to practice that Wilson would be limited and he ended up not taking part in the sessions. If Wilson doesn’t play Sunday, the team’s running backs could be Mitchell, Deebo Samuel, JaMycal Hasty and Trey Sermon, who was inactive against the Packers.

• Asked why he didn’t go to the postgame podium Saturday and bask in the glory of his blocked punt, Jordan Willis said he was leery of being credited for what he saw as a team win.

“I just didn’t want one play to be a defining moment for all the hard work that this organization has put in to be where we are,” he said on a video conference interview Thursday.

His position mate, Nick Bosa, said Willis “doesn’t have a selfish bone in his body.”

“In professional sports in general, a lot of guys want to be credited for wins and big plays and stuff,” Bosa said. “And he’s truly somebody who just wants to play the game the right way and enjoy it with the rest of the D-line guys. … I didn’t get to spend any time with him last year because I was away (rehabilitating his ACL), but it’s been great to be teammates with him this year.”

Willis wasn’t on the punt-return team for the Packers’ first four punts Saturday, and the last time he was on that unit was the Week 17 game against the Texans. But special-teams coordinator Richard Hightower tapped him for that role in the fourth quarter because he thought the 49ers could get a push up the middle.

“Shout-out to Coach Hightower — he called the right play at the right time,” Willis said.

(Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / USA Today)

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