Players like San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle tend to put their bodies through a wringer every week in the NFL. And nobody understands the grueling physical toll of an NFL season better than his wife, Claire. So, when Rich Eisen recently handed Claire a hypothetical magic wand to fix the NFL rulebook alongside her husband, she didn’t hesitate to put player longevity at the very top of her wishlist. 

“Grass everywhere would be nice. Have some cohesiveness, might be nice,” Claire said on The Rich Eisen Show when the host asked her about the changes she wants to bring into the NFL. “Your joints just hurt a little bit more when you’re running around on that [turf], let alone smacking your head on it.”

Kittle has been raising his voice on player safety and replacing turf with natural grass for quite some time now. Prior to training camp this offseason, he noted that he was “significantly more sore the day after” running on the turf. Recovery from that soreness takes longer, and to make things worse, the joints start to get stiffer. 

That’s because turf doesn’t have the natural give that grass has. It creates more friction between the running surface and the cleats. That, in turn, puts more impact on the joints and puts the players at risk of potentially injuring their ligaments and spraining their knees and ankles. 

But that’s not the only change Claire Kittle wants to bring into the league. 

“I feel like we could make a lot of changes,” Claire told Rich Eisen. “But I would say two bye weeks for sure, because we’re sitting at [week eight] right now. Well, that’s a pretty good landing spot. But you go well into February, it gets long. I’m thankful he’s feeling good right now. It’s rare that we get to bye week and he’s feeling good.”

The Niners tight end, who was recently sick, has been asking for two bye weeks for ages. Back in 2022, during a conversation with Kevin Hart on Cold As Balls, Kittle made a case and asked the league for two bye weeks. 

Between running on rock-hard turf and taking weekly hits from the defense, NFL players rarely get enough time to let their bodies heal. With 17 regular-season games spread across 18 weeks, players have just one scheduled bye. An early-season break can leave teams facing a lengthy stretch of consecutive games, while those reaching the playoffs may continue competing into February. A second, strategically placed bye could provide additional recovery time. 

Moreover, Claire wanted to change the roughing the passer penalties. Kittle claimed that she doesn’t understand illegal contact, the five-yard penalty, and the automatic first down that they bring for the offense. According to her, “If it’s away from the ball, the ball isn’t near you, why does it matter?”

Having watched George Kittle battle through the trenches for years, Claire knows firsthand that a single bye week and unforgiving artificial turf simply aren’t cutting it. Thankfully, Eisen offered to push the case forward and urged the front office to notice the arguments. But regardless of whether the NFL listens or not, the Kittles aren’t backing down from putting player health first.