Neither the New England Patriots nor the Seattle Seahawks will be utilizing the San Francisco 49ers’ practice facility before Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara. This decision might work in their favor if there’s any truth to the injury concerns linked to a nearby electrical substation.

Mirroring the arrangements from a decade ago when Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara hosted its inaugural Super Bowl, the champions of the AFC and NFC will practice at Stanford University and San Jose State University campuses, respectively.

According to a spokesperson for New England, these plans for the Patriots and the Seahawks were made well in advance, similar to what was done for Super Bowl 50, as reported by the Daily Mail.

Thus, the choice to steer clear of Santa Clara for practice sessions, where the injury-plagued 49ers train, was not influenced by the speculative theories surrounding the electrical substation next to the facility.

The speculation stems from the numerous health issues the 49ers have encountered over the past decade. For instance, in 2025 alone, the team suffered a loss of $95 million in salary cap value due to injuries, more than any other team in the NFL.

And according to researcher Peter Cowan, a board-certified quantum biology practitioner, San Francisco’s injury issues may be the result of chronic exposure to ‘low-frequency electromagnetic fields’ from the electrical substation located right next to their stadium and practice facility.

The theory claims San Francisco’s injury problems are the result of the nearby substation

An electrical substation can be seen on the left side of this photo abutting the 49ers’ facility

After Cowan’s theory recently went viral on X, George Kittle’s season-ending Achilles tear in San Francisco’s recent playoff win over the Philadelphia Eagles reignited those concerns.

Since then, 49ers GM John Lynch has revealed the team is investigation the potential connection.

‘Because it deals with, allegedly, the health and safety of our players, you have to look into everything,’ Lynch said about the theory in a press conference with head coach Kyle Shanahan.

‘Our guys have been, we’ve been reaching out to anyone and everyone to see if a study does exist.

‘We will look into it, we have.’

Former San Francisco tight end Delanie Walker claimed earlier this month there were concerns over the substation during his tenure with the team from 2006 to 2012.

‘That’s been an issue since I’ve been there – they talked about moving that electrical substation because when I was there,’ he told the Bussin’ With The Boys podcast.

‘It was said that it was giving people cancer… so then they pushed it back a little bit and just took some of it away.’

‘You can even feel it sometimes – I don’t know what it is – you can feel the energy. And then a transformer exploded one day we were at practice.

‘That s*** sounded like a f***ing bomb went off. I was like: ‘This is dangerous’ but they’re not going to move it.’

As was the case in 2016, the NFC champs will prepare for the Super Bowl at San Jose State

The Patriots will be practicing in Palo Alto, where they’ll have access to Stanford’s facilities

Walker also claimed trees and other wildlife struggles to exist in the area: ‘Everything dies where the power station is.’

The retired tight end, 41, claimed that research was done into the possible impact of the site but that players were given guarantees that the practice facility is safe.

‘They would start telling us: this may cause cancer, this is a study they’re doing. They had doctors coming up there,’ he said.

‘We may have signed something, I’m going to be honest,’ Walker continued. ‘I heard they were like: ‘Oh it may make your ligaments weak’ and I’m like: ‘God Damn, that’s crazy.’ And then when I saw the picture I thought: We practiced right there too. that’s the craziest s*** ever.’