George Kittle took the field against the Seattle Seahawks despite being sick before kickoff. The San Francisco 49ers tight end managed five catches for 24 yards in a 32-29 win over the defending Super Bowl champions. But his performance drew more attention after a video revealed just how badly he had been feeling. Kittle has now shared more details about his illness and offered an update on his health.

“Really terrible, like a shell of myself,” Kittle said in a locker room chat, according to Matt Lively of CBS Sports. “Horrible, not a lot of juice, but when you have enough caffeine in you, you can definitely play football. I don’t know. I was sick for like a while, and I feel like I just got over it today. So it’s been a grind, but we’re past it.”

The 49ers were set to play their fifth game against the defending champions at Lumen Field, but Kittle got a hint that his body was not feeling the way it usually feels before a big game – enthusiastic. Instead, Kittle was feeling low, but he still chose to play the game regardless. It was just after halftime, with the 49ers ahead 21-13, when Kittle felt something odd in his stomach and rushed to the bathroom.

“Right before we came back out [after halftime], I go to the bathroom. As I stand up, I projectile vomit. I’m standing with my pants around my ankles; I’m like, ‘You’ve got to be f–king kidding me,'” Kittle explained his situation on an episode of the “Wife’d Up, Mic’d Up” podcast to his wife, Claire Kittle, and Kristin Juszczyk.

Kittle further added that he “projectile-vomited for 10 minutes into a trash can.” While Kittle didn’t necessarily have to go into the gruesome details of the incident on camera, his unfiltered personality – evident in his willingness to share such details – is what fans love about him.

Kittle told Lively the Monday night game gave him extra recovery time, crucial after losing an estimated 10 pounds during the illness. The reporter also got curious and wanted to know if he was gaining back those pounds.

“Oh, we’re close to it, so enough. But yeah, that was a grinder. But like I said, we made it through it. Shout out to the training room. They gave me all the things I needed to keep me on the football field,” Kittle said.

Even with sickness holding him back, the tight end helped his team by recording five catches for 24 yards against the Seahawks.

But losing players through illness or them struggling because of it isn’t new to the 49ers, as they have been known to get sick during the middle of the season.

It went to such an extent that fans even started making conspiracy theories about why it happened, with the most viral one suggesting the cause was the low-frequency electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and non-ionizing radiation from a large electrical substation that is next to the Santa Clara training facility; that theory was later debunked by the 49ers themselves.

Nonetheless, Kittle seemed to be the latest one cursed by the illness-plagued franchise, but he has taken it upfront, as he does, while keeping his playful traits intact.

Kittle has always been mischievous and is popular among the locker room for his shenanigans, one of which was a prank on then-rookie quarterback Brock Purdy, with Kittle putting a hockey jersey in Purdy’s locker as a sarcastic taunt, as Iowa doesn’t have a hockey team and Purdy played for Iowa during his collegiate career.

Fans love Kittle not just for off-field antics, but for his on-field dominance – seven Pro Bowls and two first-team All-Pro honors.

Now, Kittle and his teammates are chasing the Super Bowl, being 5-0 in the league, with the Week 6 game against the Washington Commanders, who are 1-3-1, and recently made one of the worst clock management decisions in NFL history, which would boost the morale of the 49ers even more.