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49ers All-Pro TE ‘can’t wait’ to play Bills in Buffalo cold, get Josh Allen’s jersey

San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle is looking forward to his team's Week 13 clash with the Buffalo Bills in the upcoming season.

Kyle Silagyi

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The San Francisco 49ers’ 2024 schedule features an unfortunate quirk celebrated only by true sickos: the team, which is headquartered in the temperate California Bay Area, will play back-to-back road games in Green Bay, WI and Orchard Park, NY in the heart of poor weather season.

San Francisco will play the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field in Week 12 before taking on the Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium in Week 13. These games figure to be quite difficult not only due to the strength of the Green Bay and Buffalo rosters, but also because of the weather; though gorgeous in the summer, Green Bay and Orchard Park are not locations that one necessarily wants to be in late November and early December due to the general cold, wind, and potential for significant snow.

49ers tight end George Kittle has the two contests circled on his calendar, however, as the two-time All-Pro—though from the Midwest—does not like playing in the cold. A now near-decade resident of northern California, Kittle needs to prepare himself before playing in cold-weather games. Playing in Green Bay the week prior will serve as a needed ramp-up for the tight end before his team’s Week 13 contest against Buffalo, a game that will allow Kittle to cross the last venue off the list of NFL stadiums he’s played in.

Related: Peyton Manning lists Bills star Josh Allen as one of NFL’s best QBs

“What I’m looking forward to is back-to-back weeks, late November, early December, going to Green Bay and then going to Buffalo,” Kittle said during a recent appearance on Up and Adams with Kay Adams. “Buffalo’s the only stadium I haven’t played in yet. It’s the only stadium I haven’t played in yet, and so going to Lambeau in late November right into Buffalo early December, two great cold games, can’t wait. It’s going to be a wonderful time. 

“Whenever the schedule comes out, the only thing I look at is December. I don’t like cold games; when I was at Iowa and we played in like -20-degree games pretty often, and then I came out to California and it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s 65 degrees and sunny every single day,’ I was like, this is going to be tough for me to go back to the cold. Now that I’ve been out here, going on my eighth year, I do not have that callus that I used to have. We’ve played, like, we won in Green Bay when it was -20 degrees in the playoffs; you can get ready for it, but still, it’s like, ‘Oooh, that’s going to be cold.’ But hey, it’s football, you just live with it. I can’t wait.”

Kittle is also looking forward to facing off against the Bills because of the person manning Buffalo’s offense; the tight end is a noted fan of Bills quarterback Josh Allen, and he’d like to add his jersey to his collection.

“Also, I can’t wait to play Josh Allen, I need a Josh Allen jersey really bad,” Kittle said. “I want to trade jerseys with him. I love Josh Allen.”

Allen has only faced off against San Francisco once throughout his professional career, a Week 12 contest in the 2020 NFL season that was played in Arizona due to COVID-19-centered restrictions in Santa Clara County. The quarterback was on a heater against his boyhood club, throwing for 375 yards and four touchdowns in a commanding 34-24 win; Kittle was on injured reserve and, thus, did not play in the game.

Only time will tell if Kittle will get the ‘true Buffalo experience’ when the 49ers face off against the Bills in primetime on December 1; it could be a beautiful late-autumn evening, or there could be three feet of snow on the ground—either is a realistic possibility. Resident Western New Yorkers are crossing their fingers for the former.

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Kyle Silagyi
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