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The San Francisco 49ers practice facility theory that being located next to an electrical substation is leading to an increase in injuries remains alive after tight end George Kittle’s comments during a recent interview.
Kittle, who suffered a torn Achilles tendon in the 49ers’ Wild Card Round loss to the Super Bowl-winning Seattle Seahawks, spoke to Complex on Wednesday when asked about this theory.
While Kittle doesn’t believe it’s true, he does want to look into it further because of something he noticed during his rookie year in 2017.
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George Kittle of the San Francisco 49ers leaves the field during the second quarter of the NFC Wild Card playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field on January 11, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
While Kittle was focused on making an impact with his NFL team, one of his fellow veterans pointed out that the trees between the team facility and the substation never grew the leaves they should all year.
The NFL had the trees cut down this year, Kittle added.
“(The trees aren’t) there anymore, so no one can see them,” Kittle said. “So only us vets know that was the truth. I don’t think anyone has talked about it yet. That ruined me.”
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Once again, Kittle doesn’t believe the rumors are true, but he also wants a definitive answer. He added that his teammate Kyle Juszczyk and others feel the same way.
“As a professional athlete, you’re always trying to get one percent better. If something negatively affects you by 0.25%, you want to know about it. All we say as players is that we’d like you to look into it to make sure it’s not something,” Kittle said.
To back up Kittle’s point that the substation isn’t doing anything to the players, he mentioned Fred Warner, who suffered a broken ankle in October that kept him out for the season. Warner trains at the facility year-round and the ankle injury was the only serious one he has had in his career.
San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle (85) watches during San Francisco 49ers minicamp on June 10, 2025 at the SAP Performance Facility in Santa Clara, California. (Matthew Huang/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Pak Gazette Digital also spoke with some of Kittle’s teammates during Super Bowl LX week, including Warner, Brock Purdy and Christian McCaffrey, who were happy with the facility.
“Dude, I’m not a scientist or a doctor. Look, we’ll play anywhere. You know, for us, I think those are things that a lot of smarter people than me can talk about,” McCaffrey told Pak Gazette Digital on Radio Row.
“All I know is that there are too many variables in football to just say something like that is the reason for injuries. I mean, you can do everything right and bad things can still happen.”
The theory, which has now gone viral, suggests that the 49ers’ unusually high number of non-contact, soft tissue injuries could be due to the substation’s electromagnetic fields (EMF). The claim is that being near the substation for years could weaken tendons and soft tissues, leading to serious injuries such as a torn ACL or Achilles tendon.
San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle (85) watches from the sideline in the first quarter against the Denver Broncos at Levi’s Stadium on August 9, 2025. (David González/Imagn Images)
McCaffrey, Kittle, Purdy, Nick Bosa, Dre Greenlaw, Ricky Pearsall and many others have dealt with those types of injuries over the past few seasons, as the theory points out.
ESPN reported in January that the team plans to investigate all theories, not just the one involving the substation, this offseason to determine why its injury list was so long in 2025.
