Kendrick Bourne is certainly aware of the wild injury theory that’s currently surrounding his 49ers team.
Shortly after San Francisco beat the Eagles, 23–19, in their playoff opener on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field, Bourne was asked at his locker about George Kittle’s Achilles injury and other ailments the Niners sustained in their hard-fought win.
And, without missing a beat, Bourne quipped about the report that a building near the Niners’ facilities in Northern California might be causing their recent rash of injuries.
“It’s that power plant,” he said.
Quickly, though, he added, “Nah. I’m just playing.”
While Bourne was able to joke about the claim that an electrical substation near Levi’s Stadium is an issue for the NFL’s Bay Area team, Peter Cowan — a self-proclaimed board-certified clinician — wrote in a now-viral report earlier this month that he believes it could be a problem.
According to Cowan, magnetic fields emanating from the Santa Clara, Calif. structure might be “systematically weakening the players’ collagen, leading to injuries under loads other teams routinely absorb.”
The Niners, after all, were arguably the most snake-bitten team in the NFL this year, having lost players like Brock Purdy, Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, Mykel Williams, Trent Williams and more for significant portions of the 2025–26 season.
But it seems Bourne’s not quite ready to buy into it — at least not yet — as he told reporters Sunday “I don’t know.”
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“It just sucks,” he continued. “It just sucks. But we’re doing a good job of working every day. Injuries are a part of the game. It’s unfortunate. But we’ve just got to hold it down and keep that good energy.”
Substation problems or not, the banged-up Niners are now just one game away — a Saturday Divisional Round matchup with the Seahawks — from another trip to the NFC Championship.
