SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Take a left out of Gate C at Levi’s Stadium and navigate down Bill Walsh Way toward the San Francisco 49ers’ practice facility and you come upon a common but unsightly piece of infrastructure: an electrical substation.
There are tens of thousands of these stations spread across the U.S. helping to ensure the flow of energy across the electrical grid. But this one, just yards from where the Super Bowl will kick off Sunday, has taken on a particular level of infamy.
An injury-filled season for the 49ers has propelled an unfounded theory that this substation next to the team’s practice facility is responsible for their ailments. What started as an inside joke among players garnered public attention last month and spread on social media.
Since then, 49ers general manager John Lynch has said the conjecture is worth looking into, though the NFL’s chief medical officer has downplayed the possibility that the substation in Santa Clara, California, could pose an injury risk.
Neither of the Super Bowl teams is practicing at the Niners’ facility, though NBC Sports’ Mike Florio noted that these locations are determined long in advance of the game. The New England Patriots have set up shop at Stanford University, about a 20-minute drive from Levi’s Stadium. The Seattle Seahawks are at San Jose State, just to the southeast.
Substations emit low-frequency electromagnetic fields, a type of nonionizing radiation that’s also released by microwaves and cellphones. Unlike ionizing radiation, such as that released by medical X-rays, nonionizing radiation isn’t known to damage DNA or cells.
The World Health Organization has found no evidence to date that exposure to low-frequency electromagnetic fields is harmful to human health.
Nevertheless, proponents of the theory have suggested without evidence that the substation’s electromagnetic fields could be damaging players’ soft tissues and weakening their tendons.
The Niners were ravaged by injuries this past season, losing the services of some of pro football’s best players. Tight end George Kittle tore his Achilles tendon during the team’s playoff win over Philadelphia on Jan. 11. Feared pass rusher Nick Bosa tore an ACL in his right knee in Week 3. Star linebacker Fred Warner broke his ankle in Week 6. And quarterback Brock Purdy missed six games with a toe injury.
Seahawks tight end Eric Saubert, who played for the Niners in 2024, told NBC News that the substation was a constant source of humor in the locker room, but no one believed it posed any threat.
“We kind of brought it up and it’s kind of like a joke, right?” Saubert said at the Seahawks’ Super Bowl headquarters in San Jose. “But it’s odd, because you look over the fence where the power station is and all the trees are dead.”
Saubert played in 11 games this season, down from 17 last year, and he questioned whether those injuries might be “residual effects” from his time with the Niners.
“I don’t know if it’s coincidence or not,” he said half-jokingly.
Backup Patriots quarterback Josh Dobbs, an aerospace engineer who spent last season with the Niners, said he wasn’t told about the substation when he signed with San Francisco, but the facility stood out the moment he rolled up to team headquarters.
“I saw it was there, right next to the pool, like you can’t miss it,” Dobbs said at the Patriots’ facilities in Santa Clara.
He doubted that the Niners’ injuries were connected to the substation but said he couldn’t rule it out, either.
“Football is a game that’s centered around injuries, right, and trying to be as sustainable as you can. It’s a violent sport and they play physical football,” Dobbs said, referring to the Niners. “But I don’t know. There’s no reason not to look into it, right?”
Patriots linebacker Christian Elliss, who had a brief stint with the Niners in 2021, said the theory might be hard to shed.
“This is how urban legends are started,” he said. “Once someone says something, once it starts leaking to other people, it only adds fuel to the fire.”
