SAN FRANCISCO — Niners fans trying to blame a power plant for the team’s recent rash of injuries might need to find a new theory to explain their bad luck.
Delanie Walker, a former tight end who played for San Francisco from 2006 to 2012, told The California Post on Wednesday a substation near the 49ers’ training facilities in Santa Clara, Calif. is absolutely not the reason so many Niners over the last few years have been getting hurt.
“That power plant has nothing to do with injuries,” Walker said, matter-of-factly. “It can’t have anything to do with injuries. If it had something to do with injuries, all the houses that are right across the street from it, people would have been suffering injuries.
“It’s football, you’re going to get hurt.”
Walker — who appeared at Super Bowl LX Radio Row on behalf of Novartis to promote prostate cancer screening awareness — said he understood why fans have latched on to the theory, but he just doesn’t see how it’s possibly true.
“I get it,” he said. “But, to be honest with you, that’s been there since the ’80s.
“They won multiple Super Bowls. I went to Super Bowls with the 49ers. We never had injuries like that. I don’t know why that is happening, but I do not believe the power plant is the reason why players are getting hurt.”
Niners owner Jed York shared a similar sentiment on “Up & Adams” on Wednesday, when he told Kay Adams the power plant has “been there since 1987.”
“Jerry Rice was there. It didn’t seem to affect Jerry Rice. It seems like Jerry Rice can still play today. I don’t believe that that’s something that is a real issue.”
York later added, “I think we can debunk it.”
