Viral 49ers Practice Field Injury Conspiracy Theory Has Started to Concern Players, Agents

There is an explanation for the San Francisco 49ers‘ rash of injuries this year according to an online “expert,” but it may not be a good one.

Still, the notion that an adjacent electrical substation to the 49ers practice field is causing injuries is reportedly starting to alarm players.

The Niners have persevered to reach the NFC Divisional Round despite losing the fourth-most man games to injuries (254) this season.

Each of the three ahead of them, the Arizona Cardinals, Miami Dolphins and Detroit Lions, missed the playoffs this year, though the fifth-ranked Buffalo Bills are also still alive despite injuries.

The 49ers will take on the Seattle Seahawks on Saturday at Lumen Field without tight end George Kittle, who sustained a torn Achilles tendon in Sunday’s 23-19 road win over the Philadelphia Eagles.

A Quack Non-Doctor Thinks Electromagnetic Fields Are Causing The 49ers Injuries

In what may be the silliest argument you will read all season, Peter Cowan — a non-doctor and self-proclaimed “board-certified EMF consultant” with a Substack and Twitter account — made waves when he declared the 49ers were going down due to their adjacent

“Low-frequency electromagnetic fields can degrade collagen, weaken tendons, and cause soft-tissue damage at levels regulators call ‘safe,’” Cowan wrote. “The San Francisco 49ers are, statistically, the most injured team in the NFL over the past decade, a jarring paradox for a roster widely regarded as one of the league’s most talented.”

There have been a rash of injuries to 49ers players, since stars like Kittle, Christian McCaffrey, Brock Purdy, Fred Warner, Nick Bosa, Brandon Aiyuk, Ricky Pearsall and Kendrick Bourne and former stars like Deebo Samuel and Jimmy Garoppolo each missed significant time due to injury during their Niners tenures. The injury toll, of course, caused linebacker Patrick Willis to retire early.

“This constant attrition has likely rewritten the franchise’s trophy room: when relatively healthy, as in 2023 when they marched to the Super Bowl with a 12-5 record, the 49ers are nearly unbeatable,” Cowan wrote. “In brutally injured years like 2020—when 18 players landed on Injured Reserve, including stars like Nick Bosa and Jimmy Garoppolo—the team plummeted to a losing record despite elite talent.”

The irony is right there in the above-written statement. If the the electromagnetic waves caused these injuries, they wouldn’t have relatively healthy years like 2023 or 2021, where Garoppolo missed only two games, Kittle started 14 and Samuel and Aiyuk each played in at least 16 games.

Plus, the theory has been debunked by actual scientists..

“These so-called ‘mechanisms’ have not been established, and many of the experiments are contradictory,” Jerrold Bushberg, a radiology professor at UC Davis who chairs the board of directors for the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, told FOS on Thursday. “Many of the experiments have exposures that either don’t relate specifically to 50-, 60-hertz magnetic fields, or are at much, much higher levels than what would be experienced at a practice level.”

Despite The Theory Being Debunked, NFL Players Are Worried About Injuries Due To EMF

Aside from science debunking the theory, this is only a recent phenomenon too. The 49ers have practiced in Santa Clara, adjacent to the station, since the late-80s, and the station opened in 1986.

Still, that hasn’t stopped some NFL players from buying in.

“NFL players are lighting up their agents about the viral electromagnetic field theory for all the San Francisco 49ers injury woes,” Sam Fortier of the Washington Post reported on X (formerly Twitter).

Bourne jokingly referenced “that power plant” before admitting he was kidding when asked about the injuries. But Kurt Benkert, a former NFL quarterback who was on the 49ers practice squad in 2022, referenced the actual reason behind the Niners rash of injuries, and it has more to do with Kyle Shanahan’s philosophy than electromagnetic waves.

“To be honest – the brand of football the Niners play adds up in the wear and tear department,” Benkert shared on X (formerly Twitter).

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