San Francisco 49ers star George Kittle weighed in on the wild conspiracy theory surrounding the team’s injury crisis after he became the latest victim.
The tight end suffered a season-ending Achilles tear in the Niners’ NFC Wild Card victory over the Philadelphia Eagles last month.
Kittle became the latest name on a long list of injury woes that have ravaged the franchise in recent years, fueling bizarre theories, including one that pointed to a power station near the team’s facilities.
And Kittle did little to dispel the claim when he finally weighed in on the theory this week. In fact, the NFL star only another layer to the theory.
‘The one thing that messes me up with it, this is tough, my rookie season there used to be trees in between the substation and our practice facility,’ he began to explain on an appearance on Complex News.
‘There’s a fence there too and above the fence all the trees had no leafs on them, year round, all dead. Nobody notices it until you point it out. I didn’t point it out to Kyle Shanahan until 2021. A vet pointed it out to me my rookie season and I was like “That’s kind of weird”.
George Kittle has weighed in on the wild conspiracy theory plaguing the 49ers’ injury crisis
The tight end’s season-ending Achilles tear last month only fueled the conspiracy theory
‘But then this year the NFL came in and cut them all down. So they’re not there anymore so no one can see them. So it’s only us vets that know that was the truth. I don’t think anyone talked about that yet. That one messed me up.’
According to researcher Peter Cowan, a board-certified quantum biology practitioner, San Francisco’s fitness problems may be the result of chronic exposure to ‘low-frequency electromagnetic fields’ from an electrical substation located right next to their stadium and practice facility.
After Cowan’s theory recently went viral on X, Kittle’s season-ending Achilles tear in their playoff win over the Philadelphia Eagles brought it even further into the spotlight.
So much so that 49ers general manager John Lynch admitted that the Niners had been forced into assessing it behind the scenes.
‘Because it deals with, allegedly, the health and safety of our players, you have to look into everything,’ Lynch said about the theory in a press conference with head coach Kyle Shanahan.
‘Our guys have been, we’ve been reaching out to anyone and everyone to see if a study does exist.
‘We will look into it, we have.’
The Silicon Valley Power Mission Substation sits next to the 49ers’ Santa Clara base and it’s claimed the EMF waves can damage tendons and cause soft-tissue damage.
The theory claims San Francisco’s injury problems are the result of the nearby substation
San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch (left) has revealed the team is looking into the wild conspiracy theory about an electrical substation causing injuries
The theory has gathered momentum in the wake of Kittle’s Achilles injury, and now former San Francisco tight end Delanie Walker has poured fuel on the fire.
Walker, who was drafted by the 49ers 2006 and remained in San Francisco until 2012, claims there were concerns over the substation back then.
‘That’s been an issue since I’ve been there – they talked about moving that electrical substation because when I was there,’ he told the Bussin’ With The Boys podcast.
‘It was said that it was giving people cancer… so then they pushed it back a little bit and just took some of it away.’
He added: ‘You can even feel it sometimes – I don’t know what it is – you can feel the energy. And then a transformer exploded one day we were at practice.
‘That s*** sounded like a f***ing bomb went off. I was like: ‘This is dangerous” but they’re not going to move it.’
There are trees near the substation and Walker this week insisted: ‘Everything dies where the power station is.’
The retired tight end, 41, claimed that research was done into the possible impact of the site but that players were given guarantees that the practice facility is safe.
‘They would start telling us: this may cause cancer, this is a study they’re doing. They had doctors coming up there,’ he said.
‘We may have signed something, I’m going to be honest,’ Walker continued. ‘I heard they were like: “Oh it may make your ligaments weak” and I’m like: ‘God Damn, that’s crazy.’ And then when I saw the picture I thought: We practiced right there too. that’s the craziest s*** ever.’