The viral theory that the San Francisco 49ers' recent string of injuries could stem from the electrical substation next to the team's training facility continues to spread.
The NFL has addressed the theory, with NFL chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills recently saying there is no evidence to support the concept, but noting that the league remains "open-minded to anything."
With Niners players being asked about the idea that radiation from the electrical substation could contribute to the injuries, the issue lives on.
Most recently, star tight end George Kittle was asked about the conspiracy theory during a Super Bowl week interview with Jordan Rose of Complex. Kittle's take: Let's make certain it's not an issue.
"One of my teammates put it really good, Kyle Juszczyk, our fullback. And he said, 'As a professional athlete, you're always trying to get one percent better,'" Kittle said. "Like, 'Is this ice tub, is this rehab-recovery thing, is this red-light therapy, does it make me one percent better?' Because then you can stack all those up and you're like, 'Hey, you're three percent better than the next guy because you're doing all this stuff.'
"If something's affecting like negatively 0.25 percent, you'd want to know about it. Like whether it's this type of cleat is hurting me, this type of shoulder pads is, would like, increase my risk to get hurt. You'd probably change that.
"So I think all we're saying is, as players, it's like, we would just like to look into it to make sure it's not something. That's what I would just appreciate. Like, 'Hey, this isn't gonna affect you guys.' And then if they come out and they do some research, like, 'No, you guys are good,' then I don't think we'll think about it."
Kittle noted that one thing that "messes" him up is that during his rookie year, there used to be trees between the facility and the substation, and the leaves at the tops of the trees were perpetually dead. However, those trees were removed.
The 49ers suffered a litany of high-profile injuries during the 2025 season. Nick Bosa, Fred Warner and Mykel Williams suffered season-ending injuries. Brock Purdy missed a significant chunk of the campaign. Kittle suffered a torn Achilles tendon in the team's wild-card win over the Philadelphia Eagles.
"My argument for it is this," Kittle said. "Like, Fred Warner, he practices there and trains there year-round, and he's had one injury his entire career. So it's like -- now, did he just evolve and he absorbed the radiation? I don't know. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. But it's just like, let's just figure out if it's actually harming the players or not, and hopefully it's not. It's easy."
