George Kittle Reveals Which Heartbreaking 49ers Super Bowl Loss Hurts The Most

George Kittle reveals which heartbreaking 49ers Super Bowl loss hurts the most originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Losing in the Super Bowl isn’t an experience any professional football player hopes for.

For 49ers tight end George Kittle, he has experienced the agony of defeat in the “The Big Game” twice and tells NFL analyst Chris Simms one of the games definitely hurts more than the other.

“Oh, for me, the first one hurt more,” Kittle said on “Chris Simms Unbuttoned.” “You know what? I think one of the biggest things was, I felt like I was primed to have a great game that one. I was as healthy as I could possibly be for a February game. And that was just one of the most fun seasons I’ve had on a team.”

The 2019 San Francisco squad not only finished the season 13-3 but also entered the postseason as the No. 1 seed in the NFC.

“You know, starting the season off at 9-0 and a majority of those guys — because that was my third year in the league — so majority of the guys, there were guys I played with for three years already,” Kittle said. “And I feel like we’d all gone through the build up together. I mean, like guys like the DeForest Buckner, Arik Armstead, Jimmie Ward, Richard Sherman, Joe Staley, like just those guys felt like they’re brothers to me.

“That’s still a team that’s one of my favorite teams I’ve ever played for, and I still have great memories of it. But, you know, that’s one I wish I would have gone differently.”

The 49ers won the divisional round and the NFC Championship by 17 points before falling to the Kansas City Chiefs 31-20 in Super Bowl LIV.

San Francisco held a 20-10 lead from late in the third quarter until the six-minute mark of the fourth quarter when the Chiefs made it 20-17.

Simms followed up, asking Kittle if there was a moment in that game where he felt good about the team having control, but the All-Pro tight end shot down the idea.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever felt good during a Super Bowl,” Kittle said. “It’s always like, you feel good once the clock hits zero and you win — so haven’t experienced that one. But when they had a third-and-15 conversion, whatever that play was called… they hit that. Football is all about momentum, right, so it’s like ‘oh shoot.’ Once the momentum turns, you’re kind of in a tiff there. So that was kind of a like an ‘Oh, all right, we’re going to have to stop the momentum,’ which then we didn’t do.”

Kansas City reeled off 21 unanswered points to win the first of its three titles with Andy Reid at the helm.

For many NFL fans, it’s the game that started the Patrick Mahomes-led Chiefs dynasty, but for Kittle, it’s just the game he wishes he had back.

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