MIAMI (AP) — Roman Reigns went from the Royal Rumble to the Super Bowl.
The WWE star was in Miami for opening night festivities at Marlins Park one night after wrestling in the Royal Rumble match in Houston, where he was the final competitor eliminated by eventual winner Drew McIntyre.
“What’s new?” » San Francisco tight end George Kittle asked Reigns. “Are you in any pain?” »
Reigns also defeated King Corbin earlier Sunday night in a falls-count-anywhere match.
“A little,” Reigns said. “Not bad.”
Kittle is a big fan of wrestling and uses a gesture to celebrate first tries that he borrowed from Pentagón Jr., a Mexican wrestler. Kittle makes a circle with his thumb and index finger to form a “0,” then wiggles his wrist so that his other fingers form an “M” for Pentagón Jr.’s slogan: “Cero miedo” – or “zero fear.”
Kittle caught some of the Royal Rumble action on television after the 49ers arrived in Miami Sunday night as they began preparing to take on the Kansas City Chiefs.
“I loved it when you all beat Seth (Rollins),” Kittle told Reigns with a huge smile. “It was great. It was fun.”
Reigns then asked Kittle who among the 49ers would win a Royal Rumble among his teammates. The wrestler told the tight end that most of the 49ers said Kittle would win the belt.
“Yeah,” Kittle said without hesitation.
So who would come out first?
“I think we would take Jimmy (Garoppolo) out first,” Kittle said. “He gets too much attention. Just take him out of the ring, throw him out of the ring and let the attention be on us for once.
Garoppolo was also tapped, and he went in a different direction: rookie defensive end Nick Bosa.
“This is the first time I’ve heard Bosa,” Reigns said. “Everyone says Kittle.”
This surprised the 49ers quarterback.
“George?” » said Garoppolo. “Who said that?”
Reigns told him “everyone,” then asked who would be thrown out of the ring first.
“Deebo Samuel, probably,” Garoppolo said with a smile of his wide receiver.
TELL ME, TOM
Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill has no advice for Tom Brady, with the six-time Super Bowl champion apparently set to test free agency in March for the first time in his long career.
Hill said if he ever had the chance to speak with Brady, he would ask to work out together so he could learn from him. For what? Hill says Brady played with Randy Moss, Donte Stallworth and Joey Galloway.
“He played with all kinds of GOATs, man, at receiver,” Hill said. “He had a chance to go after those guys and I wouldn’t mind if I gave him a little thought.” I would do it all day.
Shut up and dance with me
Patrick Mahomes can throw as well as anyone and even showed off his running skills in the AFC title game for the Kansas City Chiefs.
There are some things he’s not as good at.
“Maybe the only thing he can’t do is dance,” teammate Sammy Watkins said. “He can do anything, any sport, any game, any board game, whatever.”
Well, Mahomes did some pretty good tap dancing on the sidelines during his go-ahead run against Tennessee.
NO MAJOR STORY
Chris Jones probably isn’t the best guy to have on your team for Super Bowl trivia night.
He only started watching the game about three years ago.
You see, the Chiefs defensive tackle didn’t even start playing football until 11th grade, and even then he only played for half a season. But the 6-foot-6, 310-pounder with the agility of a ballerina and the mean streak of a saltwater crocodile proved to be quite good at it and quickly became a five-star prospect before commit to Mississippi State.
He played there three seasons before entering the NFL draft, when the Chiefs selected him in the second round, and he finally realized he might want to watch the game everyone was trying to watch. ‘reach at the end of the season.
Better than watching it? Play in it. That’s what he’ll do against San Francisco on Sunday night.
ROCK THEM, SHOE THEM
Another sport made its appearance on the Florida Marlins field during media night. No, not baseball. Boxing – sort of.
A representative from DAZN, the streaming service, streamed a Rock’em Sock’em Robots mini-game and challenged anyone to try it.
One Kansas City boss, security guard Jordan Lucas, agreed, but his robot didn’t fare very well. Lucas can only hope that he and his team will hold up better against the 49ers on Sunday.
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