It's less than a month into training camp, and the San Francisco 49ers unfortunately have already experienced a slew of injuries. As reported by Matt Barrows of The Athletic last week, the Niners were missing 20 players at practice due to injury.
That's nearly of quarter of their 90-man offseason roster out at one time.
2025 was an injury-plagued season for the red and gold. Edge Nick Bosa and linebacker Fred Warner, two defensive leaders of the team, missed a combined 25 regular-season games in 2025. On the offensive side of the football, quarterback Brock Purdy missed eight games, and tight end George Kittle missed six regular-season games. Multiple other players also missed time, leading to an extremely debilitating season.
With the 49ers being one of the most injured teams over the last couple of seasons, the conspiracy theorists were having a field day. Everything from their training regimen to external factors was under scrutiny.
One conspiracy theory that gained traction was the idea of the electrical substation near the team's training facility in Santa Clara weakening the players' bodies and making them vulnerable to injuries.
Electrical substation jokes haunt 49ers yet again
The substation theory took the internet by storm, and it went from fringe to mainstream in a matter of months. It was mentioned everywhere from ESPN reporters all the way to Joe Rogan on his popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast. It even led to general manager John Lynch and the 49ers' brass hiring an independent scientist to investigate.
Although that investigation didn't turn up anything significant, the rumors continued to swirl.
That brings us to this offseason and training camp, with the disproportionate amount of issues continuing to affect the team.
This past week, BetMGM put out a tweet outlining who the biggest threat to every NFC West team is. It was meant to be a bit tongue-in-cheek, and they had a picture of the substation next to the 49ers:
Unfortunately the substation is on a quite a run pic.twitter.com/FkBwcUoBav
— BetMGM 🦁 (@BetMGM) August 4, 2026
The jokes will likely continue to roll in all year, but all of the 49er Faithful will continue to hope for good health to all the players wearing red and gold throughout the season
The electrical substation has now moved from wacky conspiracy theory to NFL lore.
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