For years, sports journalist Pablo Torre was probably best known to fans for his work at ESPN, where he appeared across the network on shows like Around the Horn and Highly Questionable. More recently, however, Torre has carved out a very different, and increasingly influential, place in sports media.

His podcast, Pablo Torre Finds Out, has become one of the industry's most prominent homes for investigative sports journalism, digging into stories that frequently go well beyond what happens on the field. The show has investigated everything from turmoil inside the NFL Players Association to the Los Angeles Clippers' alleged circumvention of the NBA salary cap in their dealings with Kawhi Leonard.


That latter investigation did considerably more than generate podcast downloads and grow the journalist's notoriety. Torre and the staff of Pablo Torre Finds Out won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting for their work uncovering the Clippers story. So when Torre decides there's something worth investigating, it's probably worth paying attention.

Which brings us, naturally, to the electrical substation sitting next to the San Francisco 49ers' practice facility in Santa Clara. Yes, that substation.

On Thursday, Torre released an episode titled We Tested the 49ers Substation Theory — with Science, taking perhaps the strangest explanation yet for the franchise's seemingly endless injury problems and subjecting it to an actual scientific investigation.

No legitimate 49er fan has been able to ignore this story over the past couple of seasons while watching seemingly half the 49ers' roster make its annual pilgrimage to the injury report. The theory goes something like this: electromagnetic fields generated by Silicon Valley Power's Mission Substation, which sits adjacent to the team's practice facility, are somehow contributing to the remarkable number of injuries suffered by 49ers players. Whatever electro-waves that come off of that thing are bombarding the players' soft-tissues with something that's making them weaker and causing all the tears, strains, and tweaks that team seems to have EVERY. SINGLE. SEASON.

The 49ers have spent much of the Kyle Shanahan era among the NFL's most injury-plagued teams (at least, by some measures and certainly by the eye test). The list of stars who have suffered major injuries over the years is long enough that "bad luck" stopped feeling like a particularly satisfying explanation a long time ago.


The theory gained enough traction last season that players, agents, the NFLPA and eventually the 49ers themselves were forced to address it. General manager John Lynch said earlier this year that the organization hired an independent scientist with decades of experience studying electromagnetic fields to test the facility. Lynch subsequently declared the whole thing a "big nothingburger," saying the readings showed the facility was safe. However, Torre points out that neither Lynch nor owner Jed York has ever produced any of the evidence they claim to have that shows the substation isn't contributing to their injury woes.

Now, before I get accused of wearing a tinfoil hat (which sounds like it would be particularly effective at blocking substation waves), I fully admit York nor any of his employees have any reason, including money (the 49ers make heaps of it compared to much of the league), to sweep this under the rug when they know there's something "there" there.

I do believe that if they knew there was a problem, they'd do something about it. For those that enjoy hearing the scientific method applied to things they actually care about, the episode is worth a listen or watch, and I won't fully spoil the outcome of their investigation. I don't think this episode will leave any 49er fan fully satisfied in explaining why this seems to be an issue every year. Results, to put it bluntly, are inconclusive but do seem to support the 49ers' claims that the substation isn't the root of the issue.

That said, the team is looking to move their practice facility to a location with more space. At the very least, if and when that happens, it will put this speculation to rest.

Written By:

Jesse Dumas


Corporate day-job worker with a passion for unpaid journalism and getting my emotions tortured by a professional football team.
All articles by Jesse Dumas


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