Kittle on games without fans: If I can go into Seattle without fans there, that will make my job a lot easier

What we saw from the San Francisco 49ers in 2019 was a team that thrives off energy. Whether that’s from each other or the crowd, the Niners players were emotional and interactive. If the defense had an interception, you’d see nearly the entire back-7 run to the end zone to pose for a picture. If Arik Armstead had a chance to do his sack dance that the crowd loves, Nick Bosa would be right next to him, getting the crowd pumped.

With the talk about there being NFL games without any crowds, tight end George Kittle was on Pro Football Talk’s PM show Friday night to discuss what it would be like playing in a game with no fans. Kittle answered the only way you’d expect him to:

“Home games will definitely be weird, but if I can go into Seattle or New Orleans without fans there, that will make my job a lot easier. I wouldn’t have to listen to anything. No more silent counts, nothing like that. That would make my life really easy. Hey, I’ll play on the road. That’s fine. No worries with that.”

No fans would take away the Seahawks home-field advantage. The 49ers had eight combined penalties on the road against both Seattle and New Orleans. A few of those pre-snap penalties led to punts. There’s no doubt it would make the offensive line’s job easier. If you remember, two of those were 49ers receivers committing a false start.

Here is Kittle acknowledging the fans:

“[T]he fans are what makes the game so much fun, whether it’s winning a game and your stadium is going ballistic, or you win a game on the road, and the crowd goes silent,” Kittle said. “Both of those are some of the pinnacles of football for me, just hearing that. So it will be definitely different if that’s what happens. Like I said, I’m just going to focus on what I can control, and if I can just go play football, then I’ll be pretty happy.”

It feels like we’re a long way off from football without fans. Watching a game in complete silence where you can only hear the players talk would take weeks of getting used to. As Kittle said, we all just want football, and we’ll be happy.