Programming note: Watch Matt Maiocco’s full interview with Kyle Shanahan on “49ers Game Plan,” airing at 9 p.m. PT Friday on NBC Sports Bay Area.<\/p>\n
The 49ers will be wearing their white jerseys for home games at Levi\u2019s Stadium during the 2025 NFL season as a new precaution to avoid the South Bay heat.<\/p>\n
Ahead of San Francisco\u2019s home-opening Week 3 game against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday afternoon — in which the home team will debut its nontraditional look — coach Kyle Shanahan<\/a> explained the backstory behind the decision to temporarily abandon red in an exclusive interview for NBC Sports Bay Area\u2019s \u201c49ers Game Plan\u201d with Matt Maiocco.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah \u2026 I was bothered last year [against the Cardinals] because of how hot it was, so we tried to wear our whites,” Shanahan told Maiocco. “When I coached in Tampa Bay, or [when] you\u2019ve coached on the East Coast and you know how hot and humid it\u2019d be earlier in the year, we\u2019d do this a lot. <\/p>\n “Out here, we don\u2019t worry about it that much; it never got that hot out here. But it definitely did that week, and we knew it was going to come, so we tried to wear our whites, and the league said we couldn\u2019t do it unless we told them at the beginning of the year. So we had to decide in like April this year, and definitely don\u2019t know if it\u2019s going to be hot or not, so we just had to guess.”<\/p>\n Shanahan recalled the 49ers’ 24-23 afternoon loss<\/a> to the Cardinals in Week 5 of the 2024 season; there was a high of 97 degrees on that Oct. 6 Sunday<\/a>.<\/p>\n The dreadful, sweaty experience led Shanahan and the 49ers to dress as cool as possible during the following — current — campaign.<\/p>\n “We planned it out this way in case it was hot. And I think it\u2019s supposed to be — not too hot. But yeah, we had to plan it a long time ago, so we would\u2019ve been in all-whites, even if it was raining and cold. We had to guess six months prior.”<\/p>\n Time will tell if San Francisco’s white jerseys will help the on-field product. <\/p>\n