49ers’ George Kittle offers ‘support and affirmation’ to former Iowa players

Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz announced on Saturday that the program is placing strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle on administrative leave after several former players spoke out about negative experiences during their interactions with Doyle.

"Over the past 24 hours, I have seen some difficult and heartbreaking posts on social media," Ferentz said in a video released on Saturday. "I appreciate the former players' candor and have been reaching out to many of them individually to hear more about their experiences in our program. I am planning on talking to all of them in the coming days."

Doyle has been with the Iowa football program throughout Ferentz's 21-year tenure.

The football program plans to create an advisory committee that will help "examine where we are today and how we can have a better environment tomorrow," said Ferentz.

Proud former Hawkeye and current San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle tweeted out a message of support for the players who made the accusations, and all Hawkeyes past and present who may have been affected.

The NFL All-Pro wrote the following:

I write to offer my support and affirmation to my former teammates and other individuals who played football at the University of Iowa. Recently they have shared their stories of mistreatment and racism that they experienced while on the Iowa football team. I may not have directly walked in their shoes, but I tied my cleats next to them for 5 years. Like most things in life, it was the relationships with my teammates that made Iowa Football so special to me. The lessons I learned from them as well as Coach Ferentz and Coach LaVar Woods will stay with me throughout my life. My heart aches for my Iowa teammates, my brothers, and my friends. I want them to know that I stand with them, support them, and applaud them for having the courage to speak up and start this difficult conversation. A conversation that I will be listening to and I hope all others will listen to as well.

Over the past week we have seen many different faces of this kind of mistreatment of Blacks in America. Certainly the realm of college athletics has its own stories to tell on racism and the mistreatment of Black athletes. I stand with them and support them as I do others who have faced similar treatment in other settings. We are on the difficult road to hearing these painful stories, learning more, understanding more, and working to make change in order to create a better country in which Blacks are treated fairly, equally, and without oppression or discrimination. I am listening and am available for any of my former teammates or others who played at Iowa who wish to share their stories with me.

"As a leader, you can learn a lot by listening, but then you must take action," added Ferentz. "Finally, I told the team that change begins with us, but truly change begins with me."