George Kittle may have cost 49ers a fumble recovery by socializing

San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey lost a fumble on the opening drive of Super Bowl LVIII, and George Kittle might have had a chance to pounce on the ball if he was not in such a social mood.

A video that went viral on Thursday showed that Kittle, who wore a microphone for the Super Bowl, was making small talk with Kansas City Chiefs linebacker George Karlaftis when McCaffrey put the ball on the ground. Kittle gave Karlaftis and enthusiastic “hey George!” just before Karlaftis dove on the fumble.

Kittle was focused on blocking, so his back was to the play. While many people have said he failed to recover the fumble because he was trolling Karlaftis, Kittle was already at a disadvantage anyway. Karlaftic probably would have seen the fumble before him no matter what.

Unfortunately for Kittle, that video is going to haunt him for the rest of his life.