‘It sucks’ – Power plant and $1.3bn Super Bowl LX stadium blamed for injury nightmare after 49ers star admission

The San Francisco 49ers reached the Divisional Round with a hard-fought win over the Philadelphia Eagles, but paid a high price.

Tight end George Kittle went down with a season-ending Achilles tear as an injury epidemic continues to hinder the franchise.

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The Niners’ six biggest earners (Brock Purdy, Nick Bosa, Brandon Aiyuk, Trent Williams, Fred Warner, and Kittle) have missed a combined 60 games this season, per CBS Sports researcher Doug Clawson.

“Never seen a team go this far while missing this much,” he proclaimed on X.

San Francisco has ranked among the most-injured teams in the NFL since moving to the $1.3 billion Levi’s Stadium in 2014.

It will host Super Bowl LX, which fans can watch here, and head coach Kyle Shanahan will be desperate to avoid any more superstars going down.

One wild conspiracy theory has been doing the rounds on social media.

Self-proclaimed researcher and EMF consultant Peter Cowan claims that an electrical substation located next to the 49ers’ Santa Clara practice facility and arena is emitting low-frequency electromagnetic fields that allegedly contribute to soft-tissue injuries.

He suggested that exposure can “degrade collagen, weaken tendons, and cause soft-tissue damage” in a post that has over 10 million views.

After the 23-19 triumph over the Eagles, San Francisco wideout Kendrick was asked about the speculation and appeared to be ready to don a tinfoil hat.

“Yes, that power plant,” he began. “No, I’m just playing. I don’t know. But it just sucks. It just sucks.

“We do a good job, just working every day. Injuries are part of the game. It’s unfortunate.

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“But we just got to hold it down and keep that good energy. Believe in ourselves. Believe in the next man up. Call him and have a good job of having depth on the team. We believe in the next man up.”

UCSF physician and TV personality Dr. Alok Patel refuted the power station claims.

“I can actually understand if people are getting injured, looking around at different variables, making jokes and saying what could be happening,” he told ABC7 News. “What a wild headline and claim.

“Somebody actually sent this to me earlier this morning. There are some laboratory studies that have shown that high levels of acute exposure to electromagnetic fields might cause some cellular damage.

“But guess what? This isn’t a lab setting. You cannot look at lab data and then make a claim that’s happening in real human activity in real time. That’s a massive leap.”

Patel thinks a lack of rest is probably the biggest contributing factor.

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“It’s valid for people to have questions about low levels of electromagnetic fields, and if they have an exposure, what potential risks might be,” he added. “But I urge people to go and look up credible sources of information. What this is, is a classic case of correlation is not causation.”

NFL schedule puts Niners in harm’s way

After playing in Philadelphia Sunday, the Niners are back in action against the Seattle Seahawks in the Divisional Round.

Patel’s comments on rest could be troubling as the NFL has scheduled the game for Saturday, despite the Los Angeles Rams and Chicago Bears, who meet on Sunday, playing their wild-card game a day earlier.

Fans are furious.

“If the NFL schedules the 49ers to play on a short week after Rams and Bears both played yesterday it would be an absolute slap in the face of them claiming to care about player safety,” wrote one on X.

“Credit to the league for looking out for their teams; gave the 49ers the worst possible window they could after a cross country flight and right back at it on a short week,” a second posted.

A third fumed: “This makes ZERO sense. Both the Rams and Bears played on Saturday. That should be the Saturday game.”

“It’s asinine the NFL would schedule the 49ers on a short week when they could have avoided a short week for all of the NFC teams,” noted another comment.

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