The San Francisco 49ers have been tied to a viral conspiracy in recent months, claiming their rash of injuries stems from practicing next to an electrical substation. The theory suggests electromagnetic fields in the area are damaging players’ collagen and tendons, supposedly leading to more soft-tissue injuries. Now, San Fran’s linebacker Fred Warner has weighed in on the speculation.
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The substation theory isn’t just a conspiracy anymore… It’s become a full-blown investigation. The 49ers are conducting internal studies to determine whether the electrical infrastructure near Levi’s Stadium poses any real risk. That scrutiny follows a season in which several key players missed time due to injury, including Warner himself, Brock Purdy, Ricky Pearsall, George Kittle, and Nick Bosa.
However, Warner says he’s not buying into the theory at all. “I think when you look at the actual data behind is that real or not, I think it’s false,” Warner stated on the St. Brown Podcast, adding,
“I’ll be the first to tell you, because I train year-round at our facility. I’m not going to sit here and say that a substation was the reason why I got my ankle broken in half.”
It’s an excellent point from Warner. He had missed just one game in his entire career before suffering the devastating broken ankle in Week 6. It was a freak injury that likely had nothing to do with EMF exposure. After all, he’s been an iron man throughout his career, usually playing all 17 games each season.
This led Warner to crack a hilarious joke, suggesting the substation might actually be helping him. “I’ve been super healthy for seven plus years. I think the substation may have given me superpowers. If you just overdose on it, you get Hulk strength or something,” Warner joked.
The comment got a good laugh out of the St. Brown brothers. Not many have considered the opposite of the substation theory, that it might actually be helping players stay healthy.
At the end of the day, Warner believes there are far more obvious reasons why the 49ers have dealt with more injuries in recent years. He pointed to an aging roster, a demanding training schedule, and the simple reality of playing in the NFL.
“We have had a bunch of injuries since I’ve been here. But a lot of it is because we have an older roster. We train harder than a lot of people in the NFL when it comes to how we practice. So, it’s just a combination of all that, and it’s football at the end of the day. It’s 100% injury guarantee rate,” Warner said.
All were excellent points. All of this started mostly as a joke, but as more players got injured, the conspiracy kept gaining traction. Now, some fans genuinely believe there might be something to the EMF emissions.
However, as Warner noted, there isn’t much data to support that idea. Early reports suggest the substation emits low-level energy that is neither harmful nor cancer-causing. For now, it appears to be nothing more than a viral conspiracy that will likely fade away during the offseason.
