LOOK: 49ers players cheer emphatically for division rival vs. Eagles in Week 17: ‘Get they ass, Kyler Murray’

In the last few weeks of the NFL regular season, it doesn’t just matter how your team does, but how other teams in your division and conference fare as well. Sometimes teams control their own fate with a “win and in” game, or they already have their seeding locked down. But often they rely on other team’s performances as well.

Going into Week 17 of the 2023 season, the San Francisco 49ers had the No. 1 seed in their reach. They took care of business on their end, defeating the Washington Commanders by a score of 27-10, and were heavily invested in one other game going on at the same time.

They had already clinched the NFC West title and therefore a playoff berth. If the Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles lost in Week 17, that top seed would be theirs. Hoping for that first-round bye, all that was left to get a week off was an Eagles loss, so it is no surprise that 49ers players were locked into that game, even while their own game was going on.

In the Netflix show “Receiver,” we see several Niners stars, including wide receivers Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk as well as tight end George Kittle, discussing Philly’s nail-biter.

The defending NFC champs (at the time) were taking on the Arizona Cardinals, who had just three wins heading into the matchup. The Eagles had 11 wins and were clearly the better team, but as they say, any given Sunday, any team can win.

While the 49ers were still in the middle of facing the Commanders, you can hear players asking for the Eagles game to be shown, discussing how the No. 1 seed is theirs if Philadelphia looses. Some of them are shown watching the game from the field.

Kittle noted that getting the No. 1 seed would be “f–ing sick.”

In these last few weeks of the regular season, players and NFL fans morph into massive fans of other teams, finding themselves cheering on players they usually don’t associate with.

“Get that air, Kyler Murray. Get ’em Kyler!” Samuel yelled, as the Cardinals faced a fourth-and-4 with less than six minutes left in the fourth, marching towards the end zone down 28-21.

The play resulted in a touchdown, something all Niners players celebrated, maybe even more than the Cardinals players did. 

“Get they ass, Kyler Murray,” Samuel said, later adding, “As the game going on, you know, we came out on top, so we was in a hurry to get to the locker room to see what was going on with Arizona and Philly.”

As they ran to the locker room, some watched on reporters’ phones and were all amazed at how “crazy,” as Samuel called it, the game turned out to be.

“Then as an entire team we’re in two different parts of the locker room watching 18-inch screen TVs, which is pretty cool,” Kittle explained. 

The Cardinals went 70 yards in just over two minutes to take the lead with 32 seconds remaining. The Niners locker room erupted with cheers of “let’s go boys” and “we’re the No. 1 seed!”

The game was sealed by an Eagles interception, with a final score of 35-31 Cardinals. 

The top seed in the NFC was officially the Niners, thanks in part to themselves and the hard work they put in to rack up wins during the season, but also thanks to the Cardinals, who had far fewer wins, but one big one when it counted for San Fran. 

“I’m sending him a gift box,” Kittle said of Murray as the clock read all zeros.

He then went up to running back Christian McCaffrey to tell him, “Rest your body dude, rest your body and mind.”

Cheering for an Eagles loss was easy to do because of what was at stake, and the element of the Eagles defeating them one year prior in the NFC Championship probably added to it. 

The No. 1 seed is something all teams strive for in the regular season. Not only does it mean an automatic bid to the divisional round and a week to rest and heal up, but there is also a big success rate for top seeds making it all the way. 

Since 1990, including the 49ers in 2023, 33 top-seeded teams have made it to the Super Bowl. Of those 33 teams, 14 have hoisted the Lombardi Trophy.