{"id":470461,"date":"2026-02-12T15:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T15:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/470461\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T15:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T15:51:09","slug":"how-nfl-made-49ers-george-kittle-suspicious-of-electrical-substation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/470461\/","title":{"rendered":"How NFL made 49ers’ George Kittle suspicious of electrical substation"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Kittle is suspicious.<\/p>\n

The 49ers\u2019 star tight end appeared in an interview<\/a> with Complex on Wednesday to discuss the theory that the electrical substation next to San Francisco\u2019s practice facility<\/a> has been causing its continued injuries.<\/p>\n

Kittle told host Jordan Rose that he doesn\u2019t necessarily believe the theory, but he wants it checked out.<\/p>\n

\"AGeorge Kittle tore his Achilles in the playoffs, one of numerous injuries the 49ers faced this year. AP<\/p>\n

He mentioned that during his rookie season in 2017, a veteran player pointed out to him that the trees between the Niners\u2019 facility and the substation had all dead leaves year round.<\/p>\n

This year, he added, the NFL cut all the trees down.<\/p>\n

Kittle believes this could be evidence that the electrical substation is truly causing harm.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The trees aren\u2019t) there anymore, so no one can see them. So it\u2019s only us vets that know that was the truth,\u201d Kittle said. \u201cI don\u2019t think anyone talked about that yet. That one messed me up.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that he and his fellow teammates, namely fullback Kyle Juszczyk, just want a clear answer. For now, all it\u2019s adding is a distraction.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a professional athlete, you\u2019re always trying to get one percent better. If something\u2019s affecting you negatively .25 percent, you\u2019d want to know about it,\u201d Kittle said. \u201cAll we\u2019re saying as players is we\u2019d like them to look into it to make sure it\u2019s not something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kittle is open to the possibility that the substation is harmless.<\/p>\n

\"SanGeorge Kittle racked up 628 yards and seven touchdowns in 11 games this season while dealing with multiple injuries. Getty Images<\/p>\n

He mentioned that 49ers linebacker Fred Warner practices and trains at the facility year round, and his only major injury came this season \u2014 a broken ankle in October<\/a> against the Buccaneers.<\/p>\n

ESPN reported<\/a> in January that the 49ers plan to investigate every theory, including the substation, in the offseason following another injury-riddled year.<\/p>\n

The substation opened shortly after San Francisco moved to the facility in the late 1980s and expanded in 2014.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause it deals with allegedly the health and safety of our players, I think you have to look into everything,\u201d 49ers general manager John Lynch said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Injuries have been a huge issue for the 49ers.<\/p>\n

In addition to Warner this season, Nick Bosa tore his ACL<\/a>, Brock Purdy dealt with turf toe and receivers Jauan Jennings and Ricky Pearsall worked past continued ailments.<\/p>\n

Kittle himself tore his Achilles<\/a> in San Francisco\u2019s wild-card win over the Eagles.<\/p>\n

Per ESPN, the substation theory has been disproved by scientists and medical professionals. However, Kittle and the 49ers still want clarity.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s just figure out if it\u2019s actually harming the players or not, and hopefully it\u2019s not,\u201d Kittle said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Kittle is suspicious. The 49ers\u2019 star tight end appeared in an interview with Complex on Wednesday to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[29897,49,48,29896,191525,514,948,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-470461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-brock-purdy","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-george-kittle","12":"tag-john-lynch","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}