IOWA CITY, Iowa — Once a year, usually when the leaves turn colors and the temperatures fall, the Krieger family gathers at a log cabin in southeast Iowa and its number of attendees approach the population of many nearby communities.
Bub and Lucky Krieger had 10 daughters — no sons — and almost all of them and their children return to a site called “Kamp Krieger” every year for a day of fellowship. For Bub and Lucky’s grandchildren, Kamp Krieger often was filled with day-long battles of whiffle ball that included some of the region’s best athletes.
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Among the cousins smacking the plastic ball include San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle and former Los Angeles Rams tight end Henry Krieger-Coble. They were Iowa football teammates for four seasons. There’s Brad Carlson, who is the University of Iowa’s career leader in home runs and former all-state baseball brothers Jesse and Levi Ney. Older than all of them is Jess Settles, the Big Ten freshman of the year in 1994, who scored 1,611 points in his Iowa men’s basketball career.
“They just love it, and they play it every time they get together,” said Settles, now a basketball analyst with Big Ten Network. “And they talk a lot of trash. They just smash the ball around.
“At the last one, they got the H-O-R-S-E game going and the shooting competitions, and I had to humble all of them in that. The old gray mare isn’t what she used to be, but she’s still got it.”
Settles brought that up on Twitter in the spring, and immediately Kittle, his younger cousin by 20 years, responded.
“Jess I’m pretty sure you won the first game and lost the next four,” Kittle wrote. He ended his tweet with a pair of laughing emojis.
It’s a tight-knit extended family despite its size held together by the patriarch and matriarch. Bub Krieger, who died in 2011, gave up a pro football career with the Chicago Cardinals in 1940s to run his 160-acre family farm near Mount Union, Iowa. Lucky Krieger, now 97, still lives on the farm. They empowered their daughters to succeed in all facets and definitely in sports.
Kittle’s mother, Jan, was an All-American basketball player at Drake, where she also played softball. Krieger-Coble’s mother, Amy, played softball at Iowa. Every sporting event became a family reunion of sorts when the grandchildren had games. Settles coached Krieger-Coble’s high school basketball team in Mount Pleasant. The family traveled to watch Kittle’s older sister, Emma, play volleyball in high school and college at Iowa and Oklahoma.
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It was the same way for a while with Kittle, the San Francisco 49ers’ charismatic All-Pro tight end. As an eighth-grader, his middle school football team played at Mount Pleasant. And the Krieger caravan came to watch him.
“He was just lanky and not a lot of muscle on him,” Settles said. “But he had good hands, he had good quickness. It was just kind of fun to sitting there in the bleachers with Henry and the family, because we basically show up to any event in the area if one of 150 family members is playing in it. It’s kind of a family tradition.”
Family matters to the Krieger family, of which Kittle is a product. So does Iowa, a place where Kittle partially grew up as a youth and then as a man in college. His path to NFL fame wasn’t easy. He was a low-level recruit who wasn’t offered a Division I scholarship until Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz offered him on signing day in 2012.
It took a lifestyle change to elevate Kittle from a mid-level college player three years into his Iowa career to set him on an NFL course. Yet he remained true to himself and those around him to become the star he is today.
“One of my greatest joys as a coach is seeing George be himself and having fun living life and having fun playing football,” said Iowa assistant LeVar Woods, who served as tight ends coach for Kittle’s final two seasons.
Family, football and fun
One constant in Kittle’s five years at Iowa, was his devotion to his family. Before every home game, Kittle would leave one of the Iowa team buses and immediately search for his parents. Once he found them, he gave Jan and Bruce a hug and kiss before tapping the 12-foot bronze Nile Kinnick statue on the way into the stadium.
Also apparent was Kittle’s attraction to fun. One summer day, he was eating in downtown Iowa City when he noticed a wedding party taking pictures.
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“Someone screamed at me, ‘Hey Kittle, come take a photo with us for our wedding,’” Kittle said. “So I was in between a bunch of bridesmaids. I enjoyed it. I had no idea who any of them were, but it was fun.”
Kittle was into traditional golf and frisbee golf, often shot pool in the colder months and tried to bowl but was terrible at it. During his junior year, former teammate and current pro wrestler Steve Manders (aka “The Cornbelt Cowboy”) turned Kittle into a WWE fan. Just hours after the Hawkeyes’ Outback Bowl appearance on Jan. 1, 2017, Kittle attended a WWE event in Tampa, Fla., that night.
No matter the environment, Kittle was friendly and outgoing. Settles — and others — have called Kittle “the life of the party.” It didn’t matter if it was a family reunion or an upscale greeting, Kittle was comfortable in any environment. That included dinner with his coaches.
“One of the first times I had the tight ends over when I became tight ends coach, my wife left saying, ‘Who is that skinny kid? He’s a really nice kid. He kept talking to me the whole time. Who is that guy?’” Woods said. “‘That’s George Kittle.’ And the rest is history.
“Now I think everyone sees how he’s able to connect with people and talk with people and leave people with a great impression. Whereas other guys are a little bit more quiet when they’d come over to the coach’s house, a little bit more reserved. George was not that way.”
(Matthew Holst / Getty Images)Kittle’s outgoing personality also was on display his first fall at Iowa. As he approached Hillcrest dormitory where the majority of freshman athletes reside, he saw women’s basketball player Claire Till climb on her moped. She was tall, wore long, black hair and flashed a smile that stopped Kittle at the moped rack.
“She had a helmet and a pink Hawkeye on the front of her moped,” said Claire’s mother, Shelley Till, who is a women’s basketball analyst with Big Ten Network. “And he was giving her crap and said, ‘Oh, hey, nice helmet.’ And she just kind of looked back at him and said, ‘Thanks,’ and made a smirk and drove away.
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“According to him, he was really interested in her the moment he saw her, and she wanted nothing to do with him. He will laugh and say that he was in the friend zone for a good eight months.”
They became friends and Kittle regularly asked her out. Claire always shot him down. Finally, on Feb. 3, 2013, a few hours after the women’s basketball team lost a two-point home heartbreaker, they reached a crossroads moment.
“She knew he liked her,” Shelley said. “It’s Super Bowl Sunday and the 49ers are in the Super Bowl, not that he was a 49ers fan at the time, but it’s just the irony of the story. So he’s texting her and so she’s like, ‘Fine, I’m hungry. If you want to take me out for sushi. …
“So, he left from watching the Super Bowl and took her out downtown in Iowa City to dinner on Super Bowl Sunday. That was kind of their first official going out together/doing something together where she finally said, ‘Yeah, OK. I’ll let you take me out to dinner.’ It just happened to be she pulled him away from the Super Bowl. So that must mean he really liked her.”
Throughout Kittle’s Iowa tenure, the university ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 in Princeton Review’s annual party school rankings. Kittle helped enhance those rankings. He was active in the Iowa City party scene and it impacted his football trajectory. He wasn’t completely immersed in Iowa’s rigorous offseason training, and it prevented him from seeing the field.
“I think this is well-documented, and George would say all these things to your face, that he struggled early on just adapting to college and college life,” Woods said. “The aspect of being a Big Ten football player he struggled with early on and the kind of the commitment it takes off the field to do that.
“There’s a turning point. He documents it as a conversation he had with (former Iowa linebacker) Pat Angerer as a time when he made a decision, and I think it’s kind of a perfect storm for him.”
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Angerer and Kittle are two of Iowa’s biggest personalities over Ferentz’s tenure. Both are engaging and personable. Their college career paths followed a similar wavelength. Angerer was a well-known partier and barely saw the field in his first three seasons at Iowa. In his final two seasons, Angerer developed into an on-field ass-kicker and second-team All-American in 2009, a year when Iowa finished 11-2.
Kittle, a lifelong Iowa fan, knew of Angerer’s exploits and also was aware the linebacker considered quitting midway through his career. Angerer told him the difference was he cut down on the partying and threw his life into football. At the time, Kittle saw his career circling the drain and heeded Angerer’s advice.
“After my freshman year, I got up to about 225 pounds and I got stuck there,” Kittle said. “Leading up to the TaxSlayer Bowl, the HawkSlayer Bowl (a 45-28 loss to Tennessee on Jan. 2, 2015), I got stuck about 225. That was the offseason where I just figured some stuff out.”
Wheel routes
In a family filled with well-known and successful athletes, Kittle had one trait none of his cousins did.
“We were all fortunate to have good hands,” Settles said. “We had a passion. Good work ethic. We had that motor that you can’t really teach. But we always came up short for probably one main reason and George finally got it, which is world-class speed. That blows my mind because we don’t have the speed gene in our family.”
When Kittle arrived at Iowa, he weighed 200 pounds and looked like a wide receiver. Ferentz wasn’t sure exactly which position Kittle would play. Defense was a possibility, but the plan was set for him to grow as a tight end.
“George was incredibly fast,” said Woods, who coached linebackers when Kittle arrived before shifting to tight ends coach in 2015. “I remember telling staff on defense, and I kind of got laughed at a little bit by one of the coaches when I said that George Kittle might be one of the top five fastest guys on this football team. Because he would run down on scout kickoff to service that kick return team, and we couldn’t block the guy. He was certainly skinny and wiry like everyone talks about but he was incredibly fast, incredibly athletic and explosive.”
(Keith Gillett / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)Kittle was fifth on the depth chart as a redshirt freshman in 2013, yet his speed allowed him to reach the field for a few offensive plays per game. He grabbed five passes for 108 yards running one primary pattern, and the defense quickly caught up.
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“It’s, ‘46 is in. He’s running a wheel route,’” Kittle said. “And I ran a wheel route every time.”
“It was always funny,” Iowa tight end Jake Duzey said. “They probably knew what was coming but George was faster than the guy anyway.”
Through the end of 2014, Kittle played sparingly but brought a new dedication to the field for 2015 spring practice. Krieger-Coble, his cousin, was ahead of him, as was Duzey, both of whom had pro potential. Woods’ shift to tight ends allowed Kittle to hear a fresh perspective and a new voice. But the challenge remained the same. It started with run blocking, which former strength coach Chris Doyle impressed upon him on his first day at Iowa.
“I’ll never forget it,” Kittle said. “It just kind of changed my mindset on the whole thing. I was not a physical player coming into college at all. It’s hard to be a good run blocker if you’re not physical. When he said that, it kind of changed my whole mindset.”
Still, he had to prove it.
“From a run-blocking standpoint, I don’t know if a lot of guys really respected George coming off the ball at the time,” Woods said. “Whether we’re talking about defensive ends or linebackers, I think everyone kind of viewed George as not dominant. Some of that had to do with (the fact) he’s a little bit light and then also some of it had to do with maybe not finishing his blocks as much. But I think that changed that spring going into his junior season.”
Kittle’s fundamentals, along with his growing size and strength, led to dramatic improvement. His explosiveness off the ball coupled with his ability to bring his elbows and knees to drive defenders became apparent. And he put it on full display against stalwart defensive end Drew Ott.
“That spring, going into his junior year, there were a couple of pictures I have burned in my brain of George Kittle,” Woods said. “As an offensive staff, we were watching and we were rewinding it. And no one could quite believe it. He was going up against Drew Ott in a 9-on-7 inside run drill, and George comes rolling off the ball and basically — he didn’t put Drew on his back — but put Drew off the field. And then he came back and did another one in the same practice. I think that sort of let everyone know this is real, what we’re seeing out of George Kittle.”
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It wasn’t an aberration. In his first game against Illinois State, Kittle earned his first pancake block when he drove a defender more than 10 yards off the ball. He did that consistently over his next two seasons, including to his teammates, too.
(Note: Kittle is lined up at tight end at the top of the formation.)
“I was on scout team and I had to go against George,” said current Iowa defensive end Chauncey Golston. “I would try to go as hard as I possibly could and I would just see my cleats. I could just feel my cleats like just sliding in the ground going back.”
In 2015, Iowa won its first 12 games, and Kittle caught a team-high six touchdown passes. Krieger-Coble and Kittle combined for 55 catches that year. On Krieger-Coble’s senior day, each scored a touchdown. Kittle said playing alongside his first cousin “is still the most fun I’ve had in football.”
“Henry Krieger-Coble has some of the best hands I’ve ever seen in my life at any level,” Woods said. “George is a little bit different in the fact that he could frickin’ fly, and he’s a matchup nightmare. Some of the things that George has learned and refined, I think more so came with improving his hands, and his hand-eye coordination. He had the physical tools to run and separate from defenders, but just refining some of those things.”
Entering his senior season, Pro Football Focus named Kittle, standing 6-foot-4, as college football’s best tight end. He maintained his speed and he carried his weight well. In the seventh game that year, a midfoot sprain cost Kittle two games and rendered him ineffective for most of the rest. He struggled to walk but he refused to sit out of the regular-season finale against Nebraska. Kittle caught two touchdown passes that day.
Kittle finished with 47 catches for 737 yards and 10 touchdowns at Iowa. He started 18 games and played in 49.
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‘He made Claire laugh’
From their Super Bowl sushi dinner onward, Kittle and Claire began to date. They endured one big breakup that coincided with Kittle’s major party phase. They reconciled when Kittle became more serious with football and in life. He may have changed his lifestyle but not his personality.
Kittle and a few football friends traveled to Claire’s home in Dubuque, Iowa and ate the family completely out of food during one Independence Day weekend. During Claire’s final three years of college, she traveled with Kittle to his parents’ condo on South Padre Island every May.
“I saw right away that he just he made Claire laugh,” Shelley said. “To me, the greatest thing that I noticed right away is they did start out as friends first. And quite frankly, that’s why she didn’t want to date him because they were such good friends. She didn’t want to mess that up.
“I definitely knew she was smitten. But she tried to fight it for a while. But that’s good. You’ve got to make him earn it.”
Claire graduated three months after her basketball career concluded prematurely because of knee surgery. She opted to remain in Iowa City for fall 2016 as Kittle finished his final season with the football program. They grew closer.
For the 2017 NFL Draft, Claire’s parents joined Kittle’s parents and several family members at the Kittles’ Coralville home. The 49ers selected Kittle in the fifth round, and Claire moved to California a few months later.
A Kittle family toast after George was selected in the 2017 NFL Draft. (Scott Dochterman / The Athletic)On an off day during training camp in 2018, Kittle and Claire walked down the Twin Lakes State Beach outside of Santa Cruz, Calif. He knelt on the beach. She gasped. Kittle proposed. They married on April 10, 2019, in a small family ceremony.
“If I would put it in a sentence, they make each other better,” Shelley said.
Finishing strong
Just 25 miles from Settles’ hometown in the mid-1990s, requests often would flood sporting goods stores for his No. 4 Iowa basketball jersey. Settles was a Big Ten star before a back injury derailed two of his seasons and ended his NBA hopes. At the time, Settles’ fans would ask for any Iowa basketball artifact just so they could tie themselves to the affable local hero.
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Fast forward 25 years. At a mall in Coralville, Iowa, Settles walked in one of the state’s largest sporting goods stores and saw a rack full of Kittle jerseys and T-shirts.
“I thought, I’ve got a couple of my nephews. I’ve got my daughter,” Settles said. “They might not have them back in (stock). I don’t want to bother Jan with it. I bought the whole rack.
“I take, let’s say, 15 of them up to the cash register. And the lady goes, ‘Oh, you’re getting some gifts for some people?’ I typically don’t do this, but I said, ‘Yeah, George is my cousin, I want to take care of the family with these.’ And man, her face lit up like you wouldn’t believe.
“Then the kid next door came over and said George is the starting tight end on his fantasy team. We have this 10-minute conversation about George. So that’s kind of what it’s become with this celebrity that he has now.”
Kittle remains the toast of Iowa City. He has returned on bye weeks to watch games from the sidelines. He recorded a football hype video that resembled a WWE promotion. He watched Claire’s younger brother, Riley Till, play basketball at Iowa and received standing ovations from the crowd.
When the 49ers played at Seattle in last year’s regular-season finale, Kittle invited Woods and his son, Mason, to join him on the sidelines just two days after Iowa’s Holiday Bowl victory in San Diego. Kittle still sends texts to Iowa City-based reporters and treats his extended family members as he did during their whiffle ball tournaments.
“Nothing has changed,” Settles said. “You’re just one of the crew.”
Amid his status as one of the nation’s most interesting and energetic pro athletes, Kittle provides plenty of lessons from his Iowa days. He grew as a player and a person. His persistence was rewarded. He didn’t let adversity hold him back. All of those intangibles resonate.
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“George Kittle loves life, and George Kittle loves football,” Woods said. “Those are the things that I think you take away from George. It’s not how you start; it’s how you finish. And it doesn’t necessarily matter where you come from, but it’s what you end up doing with it.”
(Top photo: Elsa / Getty Images)
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