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All eyes are on Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, where the 49ers’ home stadium will host the Patriots and Seahawks in the Super Bowl next week.
Also drawing attention: the electrical facility next door.
A viral post last month claimed the substation was causing the notorious rash of injuries that has slowed the 49ers in recent years. At least one 49ers All-Pro—one with a Harvard degree—wants the team to study it, and says players have talked about it for a long time.
“It’s definitely been a talking point for years,” Kyle Juszczyk told Front Office Sports in an interview Thursday. “It’s one of those things that it’s just so hard to say because the science is not clear behind it. And I’m very much a science-driven person. And I want to see the numbers and the statistics.”
The fullback has been with the team since 2017 and was a first-team All-Pro again this year.
Last week, 49ers GM John Lynch said the team is investigating the theory linking the substation to the team’s slew of ligament, tendon, and muscle injuries. “Because it deals with allegedly the health and safety of our players, I think you have to look into everything,” Lynch said.
In an interview with FOS alongside his wife, fashion designer Kristin—the couple is campaigning with the pretzel company Flipz to get the Super Bowl coin toss changed to the “coin flip”—Juszczyk echoed Lynch’s sentiment.
“I mean, is it a coincidence that we’ve led the NFL in injuries for the last, like, decade?” Juszczyk said. “I don’t know, it very well could be. Because a lot of injuries simply come down to bad luck, bad timing, you’re in a bad position. But there’s a lot that goes into it. And if that may be some of it, I don’t know. I am very curious. I really am. I want to see what someone who truly understands that field, what they have to say about it, and just be curious to know.”
Medical experts have largely dispelled the theory—one told FOS that there is “no firmly established evidence” to back it up—but it has still taken hold within NFL circles and the 49ers’ locker room. In a San Francisco Chronicle article, edge rusher Bryce Huff joked about pulling up with his own gaussmeter to test electromagnetic levels at the facility, and center Jake Brendel said at least one of his teammates believes the theory.
The 49ers’ injuries have been staggering, both for how many players are injured and how many of their stars go down. Since 2016, 49ers players on injured reserve have missed the most games of any team in the league, according to SFGate.
On Friday, the NFL’s chief medical officer, Allen Sills, addressed the substation at a league press conference about player health and safety.
“I would tell you that I’m not familiar with anything in the sports medicine literature that supports those associations, but I would also tell you that injury causation is really complex,” Sills said.
Sills said people have drawn “significant erroneous conclusions” by using public injury reports that don’t have complete data. As an example, Sills said it is “simply not true” that the 49ers have led the NFL in “non-direct contact lower extremity injuries.”
Juszczyk fractured a rib and also dealt with a hip injury toward the end of the season. He still played every game for his injury-riddled team. Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, Brock Purdy, Brandon Aiyuk, and George Kittle missed some or all of the 2025 season.
“As professional athletes, we’re always looking for every little tiny advantage, that little extra half a percent,” Juszczyk told FOS. “And even if maybe that’s just hurting us a quarter of a percent, whatever it is, that’s something that we want to know and we want to account for. So, I’m very curious to see what they find out this offseason.”
Kristin joked that Harvard should study the issue, to which Kyle responded: “I know some people.”
