George Kittle earned his first trip to a Pro Bowl following his record-breaking 2018 season that saw the San Francisco 49ers tight end record 88 receptions for 1,377 yards with five touchdowns. That yardage total set a new NFL single-season record for receiving yards by a tight end and landed Kittle on the NFL Top 100 list for the first time, where he ranked No. 29.
Kittle sent a memento, his Pro Bowl jersey, which he signed, to his former tight ends coach at Iowa, LeVar Woods. Woods shared a photo of the thoughtful gift via Instagram.
"Found out [Kittle] was named to NFL Top 100 this AM," Woods wrote via the Instagram post, "then received this in the mail this afternoon. Thank you! It was great coaching you [and] I'm very proud of you! Keep working hard [and] remember you can be as good as you want to be."
So you don't have to squint to view it, the inscription on the jersey reads as follows:
Coach Woods,
Thank you for helping me take advantage of every opportunity in my last two years of college. Without your guidance and friendship, I would not be where I am today. You helped me achieve one of my dreams. Always remember that you have an incredibly positive voice, and infectious personality. I wish we could have played together. You will always be an honorary Tight End!
While Kittle was not asked to do a lot of pass-catching with the Hawkeyes, he does credit the coaching staff there for helping him become a premier blocker.
"When I first got to Iowa, I was 6-foot-2, and like 200 pounds, so I was definitely not a stereotypical tight end," Kittle said in January. "The first thing my strength coach said to me was if you want to play tight end at Iowa, you have to learn how to run-block. So that's something I took a lot of pride in, and I still do to this day.
"I personally think if you can move a guy from point A to point B against his will, that's a better feeling than scoring a touchdown, in my opinion. If you can put a guy on his back and he doesn't want to be on his back, it's a great feeling. There is not much that can beat that."
H/t to Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk for the find.