George Kittle the next player to get into NFT plunge for NFL?

George Kittle might be the 49ers’ best candidate to wind up capitalizing on the recent wave of NFTs, which the NFL is expressing interest in.

The San Francisco 49ers have a number of star players, yet few come close to All-Pro tight end George Kittle, who is good for at least a handful of eye-popping plays per season.

In 2018, Kittle’s one-handed grab against the Oakland Raiders on Thursday Night Football with his eyes closed (yes, his eyes were closed) was exceptional. Then in 2019, Kittle dragged three New Orleans Saints defenders with him to set up a Niners game-winning field goal in that thriller.

While 2020 wasn’t a year San Francisco fans were happy about, at least Kittle’s leaping one-handed catch against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 17 was something to see.

Even one of the NFL’s top catches, too.

While both he and the NFL haven’t fully jumped into the pool of NFTs, a growing trend within the sports world, one could expect Kittle to wind up being the 49ers player to feature in this new form of crypto collectibles.

Haven’t heard of NFTs? Join the club. It’s a pretty big club.

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are digitally created and potentially traded on the market. In the sports world, they’re unique and not replicated, featuring a special play or something of the sort. Think of them as a sort of “digital” sports trading card, not too different than the ones you picked up from your local baseball card shop.

Only these ones are in the online format.

Recently, the NBA has made a big jump into NFTs. Especially after one of the LA Lakers’ LeBron James sold for $208,000:

https://twitter.com/nbatopshot/status/1363969592779890690

As pointed out by CNBC, the NBA isn’t hesitating to take advantage of this digital sports-highlight phenomenon:

"NBA Top Shot, a platform created by Dapper Labs in partnership with the basketball league, attracted $147.8 million in sales in the last seven days, according to NFT data tracker CryptoSlam. The service lets users buy and sell short clips showing match highlights from top basketball players."

The NFL, not surprisingly, has been a bit slower to adapt. But Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes now has an NFT out there on the market, which could push professional football on the path towards NFTs.

So could the 49ers’ own, Kittle.

George Kittle should be the 49ers’ best NFT ambassador

For the most part, right now, NFTs featuring highlight-reel plays are looking like they’ll be the next best trend in the sports-collecting world.

And while there are plenty of other highlight-worthy plays from San Francisco’s players in recent memory, Kittle seems to be the trend-setter for many of them. After all, it’s at least once a season where fans realize just how happy they are for the 49ers selecting him so late in the NFL Draft, not some other team.

Plus, Kittle’s personality is already one of the best in the league, and that should serve to drive fans all over the NFL to have an interest in the growing world of NFTs and digital sports memorabilia.

Perhaps one of these days we’ll be seeing a Kittle NFT selling for a massive amount.