{"id":35288,"date":"2024-05-08T10:56:48","date_gmt":"2024-05-08T14:56:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=35288"},"modified":"2024-05-08T10:56:48","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T14:56:48","slug":"san-francisco-49ers-star-george-kittle-praises-caitlin-clark-calls-her-authentic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/05\/san-francisco-49ers-star-george-kittle-praises-caitlin-clark-calls-her-authentic.html","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco 49ers Star George Kittle Praises Caitlin Clark, Calls Her &#8216;Authentic&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_35294\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-35294\" style=\"width: 958px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2024\/05\/george-kittle-caitlin-clark-credit-nfl-dov-kleiman-x.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-35294\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2024\/05\/george-kittle-caitlin-clark-credit-nfl-dov-kleiman-x.png\" alt=\"george kittle\" width=\"958\" height=\"651\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-35294\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">@NFL_DovKleiman\/X<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>San Francisco 49ers star tight end George Kittle is still an Iowa Hawkeye at heart, which is easy to see when he\u2019s attending events in his spare time at the university. That includes women\u2019s basketball last season during Caitlin Clark\u2019s last year in the black and yellow. Kittle and his wife, Claire, a former Hawkeyes basketball player, met while they were at school together. So, whenever there\u2019s a chance to get back to Iowa City, they make the time.<\/p>\n<p>They did so during the second round of March Madness when No. 1 Iowa hosted No. 8 West Virginia at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. It\u2019s there where the Kittles got to experience the madness Clark and her teammates brought to the building. They also met the eventual No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA Draft. Kittle told Fox News Digital while discussing his new ad with Fast Twitch, \u201cShe&#8217;s incredibly personable. She&#8217;s charismatic. She&#8217;s just so authentic. She doesn&#8217;t fake anything. She&#8217;s very interested in everything you&#8217;re talking about. She&#8217;s great to have a conversation with. You can tell how much she loves her teammates.&#8221; Kittle was enjoying time\u00a0with Iowa fans who spotted him in the crowd during the game, but after Clark dropped the 32 points to help the Hawkeyes advance, he was able to meet the women&#8217;s basketball sensation.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Awesome: Iowa alums 49ers George Kittle and wife Claire showing their support for <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IowaWBB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@IowaWBB<\/a> and star player Caitlin Clark ?\u2764\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7TVBPY6lDk\">pic.twitter.com\/7TVBPY6lDk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NFL_DovKleiman\/status\/1772649065349628174?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 26, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It was in Iowa&#8217;s training room where he witnessed that authentic character he spoke of.\u00a0 &#8220;We were hanging out in the training room after the game just to get away from the crowd a little bit,&#8221; he recalled. &#8220;She comes in, hugs all the athletic trainers, talks to everybody, talks to us a little bit, and you just see how much people care for her. She has this incredible reputation that she&#8217;s built day in and day out. So, she&#8217;s done that and just so excited for her.&#8221; Kittle was also able to see the different sides to Clark \u2014 the competitor on the court and the humble person off it.<\/p>\n<p>He said, &#8220;You see how she is on the court. She has this competitiveness. She&#8217;s got this fire in her. But as soon as she gets off the court, there&#8217;s this flip of the switch. She&#8217;s just Caitlin Clark. To be able to go back and forth between all that, you have to be very good to be able to do that, and she does that flawlessly. &#8220;It&#8217;s a spectacle [to watch her play], and [I&#8217;m] just happy for her success.&#8221; As expected, Clark was selected first overall by the\u00a0WNBA&#8217;s Indiana Fever, where her presence has already led to an increase in season ticket and jersey purchases. Kittle understands the hype. &#8220;With Indiana, the amount of Iowa fans who are going to travel to see her play, it&#8217;s going to be a sold-out stadium every time they play. It&#8217;s really fun to be able to follow her and her incredible journey,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Kittle added that his household will &#8220;pretty much&#8221; be Fever fans.\u00a0&#8220;I think I have to say yes,&#8221; he said. Though he pointed to the prospect of a WNBA team for Golden State heading to the Bay Area soon, which he will also support, considering he plays there. And though he was wearing his wife&#8217;s No. 3 jersey when he was spotted in March, he&#8217;ll be adding a Fever jersey to his collection soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>San Francisco 49ers star tight end George Kittle is still an Iowa Hawkeye at heart, which is easy to see when he\u2019s attending events in his spare time at the university. That includes women\u2019s basketball last season during Caitlin Clark\u2019s last year in the black and yellow. Kittle and his wife, Claire, a former Hawkeyes&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":35294,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3630,6,7,10],"tags":[6368,3664,6371],"class_list":["post-35288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletes","category-celebrities","category-entertainment","category-sports","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-faith-and-basketball","tag-george-kittle"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>San Francisco 49ers Star George Kittle Praises Caitlin Clark, Calls Her &#039;Authentic&#039;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"San Francisco 49ers star tight end George Kittle is still an Iowa Hawkeye at heart, which is easy to see when he\u2019s attending events in his spare 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