The plot thickens…
I’ll admit, I love a good conspiracy theory. It’s the biggest reason that I’m so sleep deprived…I get into bed and three hours later I’m at the bottom of a rabbit hole trying to figure out why the glitter industry’s biggest customer is such a closely guarded secret. It happens all the time.
So as you can probably imagine, this recent discussion about the electrical substation near the San Francisco 49ers practice facility has gotten my attention.
It all started when self-described scientist and EMF (electromagnetic field) researcher named Peter Cowan recently shared his theory that the unusually high number of injuries to the 49ers are actually explained by the fact that the team’s practice facility and stadium sit beside a large electrical substation.
According to Cowan, consistent exposure to extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields is “degrading the collagen integrity in the players tendons, ligaments, and muscle-tendon junctions. The damage is subtle, until a routine cut or block ends in catastrophic rupture.”
The theory has been largely dismissed by doctors, but apparently NFL players are growing concerned enough about it that they’re reaching out to their agents.
In a report from the Washington Post, a third of the agents who spoke with the newspaper had heard from clients who were concerned about the power plant – with some even saying that it was a big enough issue that it may hurt the team when it comes to recruiting and retaining players.
One agent said that the team is going to need to move their practice facility to alleviate player concerns, while one agent even appeared to be bought into the theory himself:
“There is something there. Always wondered why my guys would take longer to heal [in San Francisco]. Then read this and makes sense.”
And 49ers general manager John Lynch said that it’s enough of a question that the team is looking into it to see if there’s anything there:
“Because it deals with, allegedly, the health and safety of our players, you have to look into everything. Our guys have been. We’ve been reaching out to everyone to see if a study exists… we will look into it. We have. The healthy and safety of our players is of the utmost priority.”
Pretty interesting…
Well one of the players who’s no doubt interested to see what they find out is 49ers tight end George Kittle, who suffered a season-ending achilles injury during the playoffs, his third time being sidelined with an injury this past season.
During a recent interview with Complex, Kittle was asked about the conspiracy theory surrounding the electrical substation – but rather than dismissing it, he added another layer to the mystery.
Kittle revealed that there had previously been trees surrounding the fence that separated the practice facility from the power plant, but that the leaves on the trees never grew above the fenceline:
“My rookie season, there used to be trees in between electrical substation and our practice facility. And there’s a fence there too. And above the fence, all the trees had no leaves on them. Year round. That’s kind of weird. All dead. There’s a couple of bunches of leaves every once in a while.”
But the tight end says that this year, the NFL came in and cut down the trees, so now nobody knows about the effect the power plant appeared to be having on the leaves:
“This year the NFL came in and cut them all down, so they’re not there anymore, so no one can see them. So it’s only us vets that know that that was the truth. I don’t think anyone talked about that yet, but that one messed me up. I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, there’s no leaves on these trees, why?'”
As Kittle points out, NFL players will do everything possible to gain whatever advantage they can – so even if it’s only having a minimal effect, why not try to eliminate anything that could potentially be hurting the team?
“As a professional athlete, you’re always trying to get 1% better. …
If something’s affecting you like negatively, 0.25%, you’d want to know about it. … So I think all we’re saying is as players is like, we would just like to look into it to make sure it’s not something. And then if they come out and they do some research, it’s like, ‘No, you guys are good.’ Then I don’t think we’ll think about it.”
Sounds reasonable. And I’m sure the reason for the NFL cutting the trees had something to do with Levi’s Stadium hosting the Super Bowl this year, and not some coverup of a dangerous electromagnetic field covering the area.
Or did it? Who knows, but like I said, I do love a good conspiracy theory.
