The 49ers are looking into the viral internet theory about an electrical substation next to their practice facility could be linked to injuries.
The theory is not backed by research, multiple medical experts have said, and the 49ers have practiced near the substation since the late 1980s.
But the original and follow-up posts as well as a series of substack articles from Peter Cowan, who runs a wellness business in Portland, have gained traction among current and former NFL players.
“Because it deals with allegedly the health and safety of our players, I think you have to look into everything,” 49ers general manager John Lynch said in a press conference Wednesday. “We’ve been reaching out to anyone and everyone to see, does a study exist, other than a guy sticking an apparatus underneath the fence and coming up with a number that I have no idea what that means? That’s what we know exists, we’ve heard that debunked.”
Cowan brought a Gauss meter, which measures the strength of magnetic fields, to the 49ers practice facility and took a reading, which he wrote amounted to “chronic, inescapable exposure…in a biologically active range.” He later told Front Office Sports that he wanted to keep digging into the theory. “This has kind of taken over my life and I’m running with it,” he said.
The electrical substation is operated by the city of Santa Clara’s municipal electric utility Silicon Valley Power. It has been operating since 1986, two years before the 49ers opened their practice facility next door. Adjacent Levi’s Stadium became the 49ers home on gamedays in 2014.
Cowan said exposure to the substation can “degrade collagen, weaken tendons, and cause soft-tissue damage.” His original post from Jan. 6 has more than 22 million views on X. The theory picked up even more attention after tight end George Kittle tore his Achilles tendon in the 49ers’ next game against the Eagles. The team has suffered a series of injuries to its biggest stars, many of them major tendon and ligament tears.
But “there is no firmly established evidence” that backs up Cowan’s theory, 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 last week. Bushberg is also a 49ers fan.
“These so-called ‘mechanisms’ have not been established, and many of the experiments are contradictory, and 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,” Bushberg said of the science.
A number of other medical experts have called the theory “nonsense,” “wild,” and “not possible.”
But that hasn’t stopped the theory from taking hold in NFL circles. Former 49er Delanie Walker said on Bussin’ With The Boys that the team had talked about the substation while he was with the team between 2006 and 2013. “When I was there, it was saying that it was giving people cancer,” Walker said.
“We aren’t going to turn a blind eye, we’ll look into everything,” Lynch said.
