George Kittle Reveals Whether Achilles Tear Had Him Considering NFL Retirement

Kittle tore his Achilles during a wild-card game in the NFL playoffs. | Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

Considering his age, 32-year-old tight end George Kittle would have been forgiven if he decided to hang it up for good after his season-ending Achilles tear back in January. But to hear Kittle himself tell it, it sounds as though that thought never crossed his mind.

Speaking with the Ross Tucker Podcast in a clip released Tuesday morning (the actual conversation happened around the Super Bowl), a scooter-bound Kittle told host Tucker that his devastating injury had not prompted any retirement conversations.

"Was there even 1% of you ... that thought, 'I'm gonna shut it down and move on [because of the tear]?'" Tucker asked Kittle.

"No," the tight answered quickly and decisively. "Not at all. My body will tell me when I can't play anymore, or my wife will tell me I look like s---. One or the other. And I'll trust her word on that because she likes when I play football. But I love it too much and I know I've got a lot of miles left in the tank at a high level."

“I love football, and my body will tell me when I can't play anymore. Or my wife will tell me I look like shit, one or the other.” 🤣🤣🤣
 @gkittle46 on if he considered retirement after his achilles tear: pic.twitter.com/92Zeyrpm8N

— Ross Tucker Podcast (@RossTuckerPod) February 24, 2026

That's certainly welcome news for 49ers fans, who were probably quite worried they'd seen the last of their favorite tight end when he was depressingly carted off the field in January.

Moreover, the remark is also in keeping with comments Kittle made just a few weeks after the initial tear, when he suggested that a possible return to play could happen "well before November" of 2026.

Achilles tears, one of the more devastating injuries for athletes, can take around a year to recover from. But Kittle apparently got lucky with the placement of his; according to his surgeon, "the best-case scenario when you tear an Achilles is that you tear it up high, by your soleus, which is what I did. I had a clean tear," he said in January.

"And where the repair was is where there’s more blood flow. And so it takes some time off the recovery time.”

We will certainly be hoping for a quick return. Kittle is a blast to watch on the field, and it really hurt seeing him go down, even if you were rooting for the Birds. The TE had also missed time earlier in the season due to a hamstring injury suffered in Week 1, so it was just heartbreaking to know he'd been hampered again.

We'll be rooting for his eventual return, and are grateful we'll get to watch him play again soon enough.

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