George Kittle ruthlessly trolls Niners teammate over March Madness upset

George Kittle didn’t do much to cheer up Ricky Pearsall following his alma mater’s shocking NCAA tournament loss on Sunday.

In fact, the Niners tight end rubbed salt in the receiver’s wound.

Shortly after Iowa — where Kittle played from 2013-2016 — knocked Florida out of March Madness with a stunning 73-72 victory in Tampa, Fla., Kittle went to his Instagram to rib Pearsall.

Alvaro Folgueiras : 14 points on 3-5 shooting, 2-4 from 3, 6-6 from the FT line & 5 rebounds in 18 minutes off the bench (Go-ahead corner 3 with 4.5 seconds left) pic.twitter.com/ohmH7era4P

— Lee Harvey (@Sayian_Warrior) March 23, 2026

First, he shared a short message.

“Haha @ricky.pearsall,” Kittle wrote on his Stories. “Go hawks.”

Then he posted a meme of Adam Sandler as Happy Gilmore beating up a gator.

“Ope,” Kittle said in a caption on the image, “sorry.”

When Pearsall responded with the fact that Florida won the national championship last year, Kittle replied with yet another jab.

“I get to troll for at least a year,” he said. “I’m good.”

Kittle then went to the comment section of Pearsall’s most-recent Instagram post and added, “Go hawks.”

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For as much as Pearsall assuredly despised the smack talk, Kittle and the Hawkeyes certainly earned the right to dole it out.

Iowa, a No. 9 seed, entered the contest as a 10.5-point underdog, yet used a last-second Alvaro Folgueiras 3-pointer to score arguably the biggest upset of the month so far.

Up next for the Hawkeyes is a Sweet 16 tilt with Nebraska on Thursday, which means Niners Pro Bowler and Cornhusker alum Luke Gifford better be on high alert.