Scott Van Pelt vs Rich in a 40-Yard Dash: Who Ya Got???

George Kittle may have just booked the most important race of Rich's life, and Rich is not backing down.

Some context first. Kittle is, in Rich's words, "our guy." The two of them hang out at wrestling shows, so Rich will watch any time Kittle is on television talking. After the 49ers' Monday Night Football win over the Commanders, Kittle joined Scott Van Pelt, and Rich watched it live. Then his phone blew up.

The exchange started innocently enough, with some ribbing about tight ends and "the body of a tight end." Van Pelt's self-scouting report was brutally honest: "I have good hands, but very, very slow. I'm a plotter." Kittle had the perfect translation: "You're a zone guy. You just find the soft spot in the zone."

Then came the question that pulled Rich into it. Who wins a 40-yard dash between Van Pelt and Rich?

Van Pelt, who conceded he hadn't run at top speed in maybe three decades, still picked himself, though he admitted he couldn't prove it. "It's on you, Rich," came the reply, and Van Pelt immediately had regrets. "God, I never should have said anything."

Rich's reaction was swift. He texted Van Pelt the B.J. Novak GIF from The Office, the one where he writes something in the book and closes it. Van Pelt basically wrote back that none of this was going to happen. Rich told him he would feel tendons he didn't know he had. Van Pelt, apparently, used to run decades ago. Someone in the studio could see Van Pelt being a hurdles guy.

But Rich wasn't letting it go. He reached out to Kittle, and Kittle responded that he would time a race between Rich and Van Pelt. That's when the idea grew teeth. Rich told Kittle that a race like that could raise "a gajillion dollars for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital."

Rich acknowledged this is the kind of thing that probably should be talked about off camera. He talked about it on camera anyway. He also pointed out that St. Jude is in the same state where Kittle spends his offseasons. "Just throwing it out there," Rich said, "as George did."

So, as Rich put it, this stuff is now in the ether. Kittle would hold the stopwatch, St. Jude would collect, and Van Pelt would need to go find some of those tendons. Rich, for his part, took the whole thing as a compliment.

"I appreciate you associating me with speed, George," Rich said. "Thank you."