George Kittle and the 49ers find themselves in a familiar situation.
Win or go home, with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line.
Every NFL team knows how difficult it is to win football games, but only a select few know what it takes to win in the playoffs. The 49ers are one of those teams. And for the fourth time in five seasons, San Francisco will play in the NFC Championship Game against the Detroit Lions on Sunday at Levi's Stadium.
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In an exclusive interview with NBC Sports Bay Area's Matt Maiocco on the latest "49ers Talk," Kittle explained how difficult it is to go deep into the postseason year after year, dealing with heartbreaking playoff loss after heartbreaking playoff loss, and how the team maintains their championship mindset after falling short so many times.
"Well, yes, it's super hard," Kittle told Maiocco. "It's hard, one, because it's a 17-game season, you have to win a lot of football games to try and get the one seed, try to get home-field advantage, just to try and get into the playoffs. The ball has to bounce your way, guys have to stay healthy and then after every single year, you're trying to fill gaps with guys you've lost because you can't pay everybody.
"You've got to replace guys, you've got to draft new guys, new guys you bring in you have to show them what the culture is like, that winning attitude, the mindset every single day. There's a lot of variables that go into each and every season. So for us to continually win a lot of football games, find our way into these big games at the end of the year, I just think that's a testament to this franchise."
For competitors like Kittle, staying motivated year after year is quite easy.
San Francisco 49ers
"It's not really hard to find the hunger, it's not really hard to find inspiration just because that's what your goal is, that's what my dream was when I was six years old," Kittle shared. "That's all I want to do is play in the Super Bowl and win the Super Bowl and I feel like that's the mindset of this entire building. So to be able to be around this building and everyone with that mindset, it's infectious and it's a great mindset to have."
The 49ers return to the NFC title game one year after last season's crushing loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the conference championship. Essentially without a quarterback after Brock Purdy suffered a torn UCL in his throwing elbow early in the game, was last year's title-game loss easier for Kittle to stomach than previous playoff losses?
"Thinking back on it, I definitely felt worse about other games," Kittle explained. "It's one of those things, it's kind of waves of sadness. I'm not going to lie that's just how it is when you lose that close to a goal. I got over that one pretty quick, because yeah that stunk and we were on a roll, won 12 games in a row, super high-powered offense, our defense was playing well and then all of a sudden it's just like you can't play anymore.
"Yeah I flushed that one pretty quick, but the hunger, none of that changed. I'm still, every single day I got up in the offseason, was 'what do I have to do to get back to this situation?' 'How do I continue to play football at a high level?' So it hasn't really rubbed me the wrong way, it is what it is and I don't think about it too much because all I can control is what I do right now."
A loss in the playoffs hurts regardless of the circumstances, and the 49ers have experienced quite a few in recent years. Perhaps for Kittle and a handful of 49ers veterans, none more painful than the Super Bowl LIV loss to the Kansas City Chiefs nearly four years ago.
With a win over the Lions on Sunday, Kittle and the 49ers will punch their ticket to Super Bowl LVIII on Feb. 11 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas where they hope to finally get over the hump and deliver the franchise its sixth Vince Lombardi Trophy.
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