{"id":680212,"date":"2026-01-15T21:34:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T21:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/680212\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T21:34:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T21:34:23","slug":"george-kittles-spirit-lives-through-49ers-trent-williams-says-nbc-sports-bay-area-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/680212\/","title":{"rendered":"George Kittle\u2019s \u2018spirit\u2019 lives through 49ers, Trent Williams says \u2013 NBC Sports Bay Area &#038; California"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/K\/KittGe00.htm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">George Kittle<\/a>\u2019s season ended abruptly on Sunday, but his presence hasn\u2019t left the 49ers\u2019 locker room.<\/p>\n<p>Veteran tackle <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/W\/WillTr21.htm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Trent Williams<\/a> reflected on how the team responded after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsportsbayarea.com\/nfl\/san-francisco-49ers\/george-kittle-achilles-tear-eagles\/1906301\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">losing Kittle to a torn Achilles<\/a> during San Francisco&#8217;s NFC Wild Card Round, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsportsbayarea.com\/nfl\/san-francisco-49ers\/live-updates-score-highlights-wild-card-playoffs\/1904664\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">win over the Philadelphia Eagles.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don\u2019t think anybody would\u2019ve blamed us for not being able to pull that out after losing a guy like George that early,&#8221; Williams said Wednesday. &#8220;But George, his spirit, the energy &#8212; it lives through this team.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Kittle suffered the injury in the second quarter and was ruled out before halftime, forcing the 49ers to regroup on the fly without one of the emotional and physical leaders of their offense. Despite the severity of the setback, Williams emphasized that Kittle\u2019s mindset in the locker room helped steady the team.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Even talking to him in the locker room, obviously he wasn\u2019t happy, but his spirits were just really in a good place,&#8221; Williams explained. &#8220;And it gave us that resolve &#8212; like, &#8216;OK, our brother\u2019s good. Let\u2019s go do this for him.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Kittle had already battled multiple injuries earlier in the season, but this one brought a sudden end to his postseason run. Still, teammates believe his influence remains unmistakable as they prepare for what\u2019s next.<\/p>\n<p>The 49ers will turn their attention to the NFC Divisional Playoff, traveling to face the Seattle Seahawks on Saturday with Kittle sidelined &#8212; but far from forgotten.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/49ers-talk-with-matt-maiocco.simplecast.com\/episodes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Download and follow the 49ers Talk Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Kittle\u2019s season ended abruptly on Sunday, but his presence hasn\u2019t left the 49ers\u2019 locker room. Veteran tackle&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,7,6066,6,1161,252,2624,2623,2983],"class_list":{"0":"post-680212","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-george-kittle","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","14":"tag-sanfrancisco","15":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers","16":"tag-trent-williams"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115901265847029057","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}