John Lynch addresses substation conspiracy theory about 49ers injuries

Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz react to San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch addressing the conspiracy theory that an electrical substation near the 49ers’ practice facility could be causing an increase in injuries. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV.

Video Transcript

We’re a week away from the Super Bowl taking place at Levi Stadium, which is important, because 49ers GM John Lynch confirmed that the team will look into the electrical substation on the Levi Stadium grounds.

Speculation arose that effects from the substation have contributed to the team’s injury wo- woes in recent seasons.

And this brings us to some of the great conspiracy theories happening right now in the NFL.

I’ve long said you can convince a conspiracy theorist of another conspiracy easily, but never of the truth.

So we’re gonna try and figure out what’s actually true here.

Shout-out to our peers that will be at that, at that game on Super Bowl Sunday, making sure that You know, C-Rob, stay safe.

I wouldn’t wanna, wouldn’t wanna get you get hurt out there.

Are you buying into the theory, Caroline, that an electrical substation is causing an increase in injuries for the 49ers players, and for the 49ers as an organization?

What do you say?

You know, I kind of want to believe in it, because how, like, Superman, how, like, Marvel, how superhero does that sound, right?

that, “Oh, oh, we’re, we’re practicing next to an electrical substation, so that does something to the joints and the ligaments, and the be-,” so on and so forth, whatever really much smarter doctors and medical people, and electrical engineers want to tell me.

Like, I, I don’t know enough about it to say, “Of course not, that’s ridiculous.”

And, I mean, the 49ers have been so injured, not just this season, but over the last couple of years, that why not?

Sure, why not?

I Oh, who am I to say that that’s not a, a potential factor in all of this?

I hope that it’s not.

For the 49ers’ sake, I hope they figure out what has been causing all of these injuries.

But you know what, Fitz?

Sure, sure, I’m here for it.

That Like, that’s the thing, like, I, I, u- look, I’m the guy that everybody hates at every party, where I’m like, “Well, actually…” so let me, for a second, just be Debbie Downer, as I always am.

I, I found the origin of this.

I was trying to figure out where it came from.

It came from a post on X from a, a user named Peter Cowan, who claimed that electromagnetic fields from the substation could be weakening players’ connective tissue, and that spread.

Like, Joe Rogan talked about it, a bunch of people talked about it.

Of note, as the San Francisco Standard points out, there is no factual basis to the theory, and the data collected behind the viral post is flimsy.

In the hypothesis, Cowan originally wrote, “I was not able to access the facilities, and my estimates could be wrong.

If the fields are lower than my estimates, then that’s the end of the substation story for now.”

So what we really have is a guy on Twitter said, “I think that it kind of makes sense that this could be, but I might have measured it wrong, and it might be creating some injuries.”

So, ah- Classic!

… Look, I, I’m with you, though, at some- yeah, that’s the modern world, congratulations.

but, look, there’s gotta be some explanation any time that you have all these injuries.

My question is: Have we looked into these fields around wherever the Chargers play?

‘Cause I feel like the Chargers have had injury issues for, like, 20 years.

John Lynch addresses substation conspiracy theory about 49ers injuries

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