San Francisco 49ers TE George Kittle Lived Up to His Super Bowl Promise

Four years ago, the San Francisco 49ers' George Kittle stood on a Hard Rock Stadium sideline in Miami, muttering to himself as the realization of Super Bowl heartbreak started to kick in.

The clock had yet to wind all the way down on a 31-20 defeat at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV, but the All-Pro tight end already had his next goal clearly in mind.

"I will be back here," Kittle said. "I will be back here, and I will be back with a mother****ing vengeance. You will not get the best of me. No sir."

Kittle, it turns out, is a man of his word.

On Sunday, the 49ers overcame a 17-point halftime deficit by scoring 27 consecutive second-half points in their 34-31 win over the Detroit Lions in the NFC Championship Game. And fittingly, Kittle recovered an onside kick in the final seconds to clinch the win. After three seasons of failed attempts at trying to get back to Super Bowl Sunday, which included back-to-back losses in the NFC title game, the Niners are finally there. Kittle's promise is fulfilled.

Now, a familiar opponent awaits. San Francisco will get a Super Bowl rematch with the Chiefs when they face off in Las Vegas. The 49ers are back in the big game, but only February 11 will reveal if they return—to paraphrase Kittle—with force.

"What a challenge," said second-year 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, who threw for 267 yards, a touchdown and a pick against the Lions. "You've got [Patrick] Mahomes and what he does, and their team [is] special. They're winners. They've proven that over the years he's been there. So for us to be able to go...play them is going to be sweet."

Super Bowl promises can be tough to live up to. Not everyone is Joe Namath, who guaranteed a win in the game of the year and then backed it up.

Hall of Fame coach Jimmy Johnson, fresh off of winning two rings with the Cowboys, claimed there would be more of the same when he teamed up with Dan Marino in Miami, but there wasn't. Just a few years ago, cornerback Jalen Ramsey assured Jaguars fans they were going to a Super Bowl, but shortly afterward the team lost in the AFC Championship Game. The list goes on.

And for a while it seemed Kittle would never get a chance to return to the sport's biggest stage.

There were plenty of close calls. Two seasons ago, the Niners blew a 10-point fourth-quarter lead against the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC title game. Then a quarterback-less 49ers team was smacked last year by the Philadelphia Eagles for the George Halas trophy. Early in Sunday's matchup with the Lions, it seemed the conference championship losing streak would extend to three years. San Fran made sure it didn't.

"I'm very happy for this team, this organization to get back and get this opportunity," said Kittle postgame, an NFC Champions cap on his head. "Because yeah, losing in the NFC Championship Game [twice in a row] is not very fun. You put an extra two weeks in and then lose, and it's like, 'Ah. That stings.'"

Added coach Kyle Shanahan on his team's halftime mindset: "We're not going out like this."

The 49ers scored on each of their first five second-half drives, then kneeled out a title game win on their sixth. It marked the franchise's first win when trailing by 14 or more points since 2022, according to ESPN.

"They had us in the first half, not gonna lie," a pumped-up Kittle said to fans, referring to a popular meme, on the celebratory stage inside Levi's Stadium after the game. "But here we are now. Let's go faithful, we're back, baby."

While the 49ers have been trying to get back to the Super Bowl, the Chiefs have been making themselves comfortable there. Kansas City is the AFC champion for the fourth time in five years, and Mahomes is going for ring No. 3 in the rematch with the Niners. Last time around, the two-time MVP led the Chiefs back from a, yes, 10-point fourth-quarter hole to beat the 49ers and push Kittle and company into envisioning their next opportunity.

But now it has arrived, and Super Bowl Sunday can't come soon enough for the 49ers.

"There's been unfinished business for a while, man," said Shanahan, hoping to lead the franchise to its first championship since the 1994 season. "It's been a long year to get to this point, and we got it done today. It was hard at the beginning, but the character we have in our team, the type of guys we have, we can't wait to get to Vegas."