George Kittle: Jimmy Garoppolo rumors are for the media, not the 49ers locker room

San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle estimates that he's been asked about his quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo, about 211 times since last year's Super Bowl. I actually wonder if that might be a gross underestimate. That didn't stop Rich Eisen from asking Kittle about his quarterback during an interview on The Rich Eisen Show. The two are friends, though, so Kittle gave the host a pass.

Kittle's response to the question about Garoppolo mirrored what he said this morning on Good Morning Football. As always, the tight end expressed a great deal of confidence in his quarterback and attributed much of the chatter to a lack of other news. Any news of another quarterback being potentially available via a trade has immediately led to speculation about Garoppolo's future.

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"I think everyone wants to talk about Jimmy because the Niners aren't in the playoffs," Kittle told Eisen. "Let's talk about something, Niners media. All we can talk about is rumors, chatter, and yada yada yada. Let's talk about the most controversial thing we know about, which is the quarterback position for the Niners, which is what media members have made it.

"As a player on the team, and a captain on the team, and being in the locker room every single day, and in the building, that's not the chatter I hear every single day.

"I'm just going to keep playing football. I'm going to play football with Jimmy G, and I'm excited about it because I think he's a hell of a quarterback."

Eisen expressed his appreciation to Kittle for answering the question for the 212th time.