49ers’ George Kittle still campaigning for NFL to add extra bye week

It’s an idea that many can probably get behind. How about an extra week of NFL football every season? No, I’m not talking about adding an 18th game. Although, that will probably happen sooner rather than later. I’m talking about a 19-week regular season with two bye weeks for each team.

NFL Players always welcome bye weeks. It’s a break that allows them a little extra time to recover from the rigors of the NFL season. So they would certainly welcome an extra break.

San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle made headlines last year when, during a conversation with comedian Kevin Hart, he revealed his desire for the NFL to add a second bye week for NFL teams.

Once again, the People’s Tight End is campaigning for the change.

“It makes sense to me,” Kittle said on the Washed Up Walkons podcast. “Seventeen football games is really difficult. Staying healthy is difficult in the NFL. It’s honestly a lot of luck. Like if you just take a weird hit—I’ve had injuries before where I’m blocking, and the running back jumps through the hole, and his foot clips me in the calf, and I have a deep calf bruise, and I can hardly walk for two weeks. So it’s just like you have stuff like that that there’s not really anything you could do to control it.

“It doesn’t matter how much you work out, how you work out in the offseason, it doesn’t matter how great of a camp practice you have, doesn’t matter how consistent you are, someone can just fall on you, and it can either ruin your season, or it can ruin your next couple of weeks, and it can prohibit you from being at your best.”

The NFL regular season already runs from early September into January. Three of San Francisco’s last four seasons have lasted into at least late January because of deep playoff runs. So what’s one extra week?

“So my thing is, if you just add an extra bye weekend, then the season, it’s already at 18 games with one bye week, it’s at 18 weeks,” Kittle explained. “And so then you could just throw in another bye week. It will be 19 weeks. It’s another week of football, and the players are healthier, and the players that you want to see every Sunday, who are getting you all these fantasy points, they’re going to be out on the field and have a higher likelihood of being out there because their bodies are going to be healthier.

“So it just makes sense to me. Just start to go another week. The Super Bowl is on Valentine’s Day, as it is, so I think I’d be okay with one more bye week. Just have one early in the season, have one late in the season, and let guys be healthy.”

You can listen to the entire interview with Kittle below.