8th February 2026 must have been a scene straight out of a nightmare for San Francisco 49er fans as they witnessed their heated rivals, the Seattle Seahawks, lifting the Lombardi Trophy on their home turf at Levi’s Stadium. While the moment left a bitter taste for many in the Bay Area, 49ers tight end George Kittle recently offered his own perspective on it.

“It is what it is. It was the Super Bowl at our stadium. It didn’t really bother me. I know it bothered 49ers fans, but at the end of the day, we get another shot at it next year,” Kittle said on an appearance on the Pardon My Take Podcast. “And we get to play at Seattle, they get to come to us again, and we’re going to hit people in the face, so I’m just going to do my best to win all those games.”

Kittle’s comments come against the backdrop of one of the fiercest rivalries in all of football for the past decade and a half. While both teams are natural rivals, having been in the same division, the NFC West, since 2002, their rivalry reached another level in 2011 when Jim Harbaugh arrived in San Francisco. With the arrival of Harbaugh, he brought along the college rivalry he had with then-Seahawks coach Pete Carroll. Harbaugh, who coached at Stanford, and Carroll, who coached at USC, were both heated rivals in the Pac-12 when they faced off against each other every year.

Their rivalry reached a boiling point in 2009 when Harbaugh ran up the score on the Trojans in a 48-21 walloping. This prompted a frustrated Carroll to ask, “What’s your deal though? You all right?” during the post-game handshake. To which Harbaugh replied, “Yeah, I’m good. What’s your deal?”

That rivalry was directly reflected during their time coaching against each other in the NFC West from 2011 to 2014, when both the Seahawks and the 49ers were two of the best teams in the league. After Harbaugh’s departure to Michigan, Seattle largely had the upper hand over the following years. But in 2019, under the stewardship of head coach Kyle Shanahan, the Niners re-established themselves as contenders. This also coincided with Kittle’s emergence as one of the faces of the franchise after being drafted by San Francisco in 2017.

Kittle himself has embodied the current iteration of the 49ers established under Kyle Shanahan, arguably better than any other player currently wearing the red and gold.  His extraordinary blocking ability, combined with his speed and ferocity, has made him one of the best tight ends of his generation. A seven-time Pro Bowler entering his 10th NFL season, Kittle has long been the emotional heartbeat of San Francisco’s offense and one of the league’s most physical players at his position.

The most notable moment in this rivalry during Kittle’s era arguably came in the last game of the previous decade. On December 29th, 2019, the 49ers traveled to Seattle with the NFC West title and the conference’s No. 1 seed hanging in the balance. Linebacker Dre Greenlaw famously stopped Seahawks tight end Jacob Hollister inches short of the goal line on the game’s final play, securing both the division crown and home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs for San Francisco. NFL.com ranked it as the regular-season game of the year.

The interesting thing about these teams right now is how they are constructed specifically in the image of their respective head coaches. Shanahan is widely considered one of football’s premier offensive minds, with his outside-zone running scheme and quarterback-friendly system influencing offenses throughout the league. That influence can even be seen in Seattle, where offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak previously worked under Shanahan in San Francisco.

The Seahawks, on the other hand, are built on the image of their HC, Mike MacDonald, who is a defensive genius. Their hard-hitting defense emphasizes choking out the opponent’s passing offense using disguises in the secondary to confuse the opposition’s QB post-snap.

The rivalry gained another painful chapter for San Francisco last season. Not only did the Seahawks celebrate a Super Bowl title at Levi’s Stadium, but they also eliminated the 49ers on their path to the championship. Kittle was forced to watch that divisional-round loss from the sidelines after suffering a torn Achilles in San Francisco’s wild-card victory over the Philadelphia Eagles.

Now, as he works his way back, Kittle appears increasingly confident about his recovery. Speaking on the same edition of Pardon My Take, the veteran tight end revealed he had already returned to running in cleats.

“I got to run today. I hit over 16 miles an hour, that was pretty sick,” Kittle said. “I’m in cleats on the field right now, so I’m 21 weeks out, and I’m running over 16 miles an hour.”

His optimism mirrors comments he made earlier this month, when he reported there had been no setbacks in his rehabilitation and that both his medical team and the organization were pleased with his progress.

Kittle also found a silver lining in Seattle’s championship run. The Seahawks were led by quarterback Sam Darnold, who spent the 2023 season in San Francisco before later stops in Minnesota and Seattle.

“The one year I got to play with Sam, just watching him, I was like, ‘Goodness gracious, this guy’s a good quarterback,'” Kittle said. “His arm strength, his decision-making, I knew he was a starting quarterback in the NFL.”

The challenge for Kittle and the 49ers is pretty unique. They finished last season with a 12-5 record and remain firmly in the contender conversation entering 2026. However, navigating the NFC West will be no easy task. The defending champion Seahawks remain one of the league’s premier teams, while the Rams significantly bolstered their roster this offseason with the additions of Myles Garrett and Trent McDuffie. The Niners will have to face both teams twice as usual.

With Seattle scheduled to visit Levi’s Stadium in Week 12 after the teams meet earlier in the season, Kittle will not have to wait long for another chapter in the rivalry. And judging by his comments, he’s far more focused on those upcoming matchups than on what happened last February.