George Kittle honors late Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir with playoff message

UPDATE: Kittle suffered an Achilles injury in the second quarter of Sunday’s game. He was carted off the field and ruled out for the rest of the game.

George Kittle has plenty going on Sunday as the 49ers visit the Philadelphia Eagles in the wild-card round of the NFC playoffs, but he took a moment out of his pregame routine to honor a legendary Bay Area musician who passed away a day earlier.

Kittle inscribed the words “DEAD FOREVER” on the tape wrapped around his left ankle and gestured to the message during pregame warmups, a reference to the death of Grateful Dead co-founder Bob Weir.

Weir’s family announced Saturday that the jam-band pioneer had died peacefully at age 78, surrounded by loved ones.

The Dead, which was founded in Palo Alto in 1965, found fans throughout the Bay Area and across the globe with their genre-blending, free-flowing music.

Kittle has spoken before about being a Deadhead. On his Kittle Things podcast hosted with wife Claire, he said that he went to a Dead show at the Sphere in Las Vegas — where reiteration Dead & Co. played a residency last spring. The tight end brought along teammates Nick Bosa, Christian McCaffrey, Kyle Juszczyk and Jake Tonges, who he said were gambling afterward while he made friends with some fellow fans at the bar.

“Two guys in like their late 50s, early 60s, tie-dye T-shirts and I talked to them for like an hour, just sitting there, having a conversation,” Kittle recalled. “One friend knew who I was, the other guy had no idea who I was and we were just having a conversation. It was fantastic.”

Although some 49ers were into the Dead show with Kittle, the jam-band vibe was determined not to suit the intensity of workouts in the facility.

“I tried to put one on in the weight room and the guys were like ‘What are we listening to?'” Kittle recalled in a story to media personality Big Cat.

With a win in Philly, the 49ers will just keep truckin’ on in the NFC’s playoff field.

George Kittle with “DEAD FOREVER” wrapped around his shoe in honor of the late Bob Weir pic.twitter.com/QQR0aIUjaH

— KNBR (@KNBR) January 11, 2026