Earlier this week, the San Francisco 49ers placed tight end George Kittle on injured reserve after he injured his hamstring in Sunday’s win over the Seattle Seahawks. Whether by coincidence or by taking advantage of his newfound free time, Kittle premiered his own podcast this week with his wife Claire, called Kittle Things. The first guest they welcomed to the show was none other than Charles Barkley.
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Barkley, whom Bill Simmons recently said was one of the top two podcast guests of all time, went deep on what it’s like working on Inside the NBA. He talked about how today’s athletes have it so different from his generation because of the presence of social media, then he made some NFL predictions before comparing some of the differences between the NBA and NFL.
The Kittles and Barkley then spoke to comedian Shane Gillis over the phone before getting down to business with a friendly game of blackjack. Barkley is known for being an avid gambler, but luck wasn’t on his side against Kittle as he lost three straight hands.
Barkley began the segment by asking, “How do I know y’all didn’t fix the deck?” implying that Kittle might have rigged the game against him. Even though Kittle ran the deck through an automatic shuffler, what then took place didn’t alleviate his suspicions. First, Kittle dealt Barkley a 12 and himself an ace face up.
“No insurance,” Barkley said, before telling Kittle, “You have to say if you have blackjack.” Kittle looked at his down card and delivered the bad news. “I have blackjack.”
“That is total bull****,” Barkley laughed as Claire said, “Beginner’s luck!” Barkley blamed it on “That fake-a** shuffle you did,” and it didn’t get much better for him in the second hand, as he lost 19-17 on that one before letting loose with another expletive.
Kittle gave Barkley one more chance to beat him, telling him, “You win this, I’m on your podcast whenever you want me,” to which Claire said, “He is anyway.”
This time, Barkley was dealt a 12 as Kittle showed a 3. Barkley got a 4 when he hit to bring him up to 16, then he stood. Kittle’s down card was a 5, and then lo and behold, he pulled another ace to give him 19 and the win. “You’re just pulling aces out your a******,” Barkley laughed in dismay.
Barkley educated Kittle on the casinos’ biggest money-maker
Earlier in the podcast, Kittle told Barkley that he loves playing slot machines. Barkley knows his way around a casino, and he steered Kittle straight, telling him to avoid the one-armed bandits at all cost. “I think the casinos make about 60-65% of their money from slot machines, so never play the slots,” he said.
Kittle signed a four-year, $76.4 million contract extension in April, with $40 million of that guaranteed. He and his family should be set for generations to come, but if he ever wanted to make a little more money on the side, he might be on to something with this casino idea. Line up a few slot machines and a couple of blackjack tables, and voila, profit.
