The San Francisco 49ers have been regularly connected to wide receiver Antonio Brown, and it seems unlikely that will change until either a trade happens or the Steelers formally shut down any trade discussions.
Brown’s situation has been an evolving one, with Jerry Rice saying he passed along Brown’s interest to 49ers GM John Lynch. However, before all that, tight end George Kittle launched the recruiting process. He tweeted at Brown on New Years’ Eve, and on Thursday, Kittle offered an amusing reason for the tweet in an interview with Jim Rome.
“You know what, Jimmy G. dared me that I wouldn’t do it. And so I said ‘you know what, OK, I will do it.’ And that’s all it was. AB’s a fantastic player. Anything that happens with players in the offseason that’s on coach Shanahan and Mr. Lynch. And whatever decisions they make, I’m standing behind them.”
I can picture George Kittle and Jimmy Garoppolo hanging out on New Years’ Eve, and a few drinks in, Garoppolo makes the dare. The tweet happened at 10:05 p.m. PT on New Years Eve, so you know they had already consumed a few beverages.
It seems pretty easy to picture the entire conversation. Garoppolo jokes that Kittle should tag Brown in a tweet, and Kittle responds that he’ll definitely do it. I have little doubt that there would be virtually no push back from Kittle on this. Then both find themselves snickering until 25 minutes later when Brown responded with the star eyes. There was definitely a high-five after that happened.