49ers won’t change their Super Bowl practice schedule, even though they are worried about the UNLV practice field.
Coach Kyle Shanahan indicated Monday on the Super Bowl’s Opening Night media event that the 49ers will not change their practice schedule for this week.
The team was thinking about what to do when they got to Las Vegas and found that the courts at UNLV were much softer than they thought they would be.
She said, “I’m not worried about it at all.” “That’s the way it is.” We are here. Nothing is going to change.
The San Francisco 49ers got to Las Vegas on Sunday and are now getting used to their surroundings before Super Bowl LVIII.
There are two artificial fields at the university. Last week, real grass was put down on top of them. League sources said that the fields felt like sponges because they had no surface between the old artificial field and the new sod.
CBS Sports has learned that some 49ers employees are unhappy with their use of the field at UNLV, which was chosen by the NFL as the site of the NFC champion practice when Super Bowl week.
Sources say the problem is how firm the NFL’s natural grass is that they put on top of UNLV’s fake grass before the 49ers practice there.
This past week, a group of 49ers from the equipment staff and the grounds team went to Las Vegas to check out the sports complex.
As sources say, they think the grass is far too wet for the players to practice on. The team has thought about other options.
As of Monday morning, 49ers players as well as coaches were yet to make it to the field because they had just gotten to Las Vegas on Sunday at at approximately 6:30 p.m. They are going to do a walkthrough there on Monday afternoon.
Sources say this isn’t so much a matter of health and safety as it is of personal choice. Sources say that the surface at UNLV now meets all NFL, NFL Players Association, and other standards.
The “Clegg” test, which checks how firm a field is, is one of the ways the league makes sure that fields are up to code.
For the NFL to let them pass, fields must be at or below 100g. A source says that the grass grown at UNLV is about 50g, while the 49ers like theirs to be about 70g.
As of Monday, before their walkthrough, the 49ers have three choices. You can either a) keep practicing on the field as planned; b) get new, firmer grass that should be ready for practice this week; or c) talk to the NFL about practicing at the Las Vegas Raiders’ practice facility, which is where the Chiefs are this week.
It has been talked about that the 49ers could change their schedule so they can practice at the Oakland Raiders’ facilities as the Chiefs lack there.
However, sources also said that San Francisco would probably stay at UNLV before the 49ers will ever play a game.
On Sunday, the 49ers or Chiefs will play in Super Bowl 58. Since the Chiefs are the home team, they can use the Raiders’ facilities.
Reports say that the 49ers were so unhappy with the conditions of their field that they thought about taking drastic action at one point.
Matt Barrows of The Athletic reported, “The 49ers were so unhappy they even initially considered flying out of Las Vegas following Monday night’s TV event and exercising in Santa Clara before the match but have since backed out that plan, according to league sources.”
Concerned 49ers aside, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said on Monday that the fields were “playable” according to the NFL. On Monday afternoon, the team did a walk-through of the building.
Jonathan Jones was the first to say that the 49ers didn’t like how soft the UNLV field was. The team sent members of the equipment and grounds teams to Las Vegas last week to check out the conditions.
“The 49ers thought the fields adequate for Monday’s walk-through yet not for a full practice,” Barrows said.
“The 49ers are inclined toward practice at UNLV on Wednesday, although a firm decision on the week is yet to be made.”
Monday, San Francisco 49ers assistant coach Kyle Shannan played down worries about the field his team is going to train off at UNLV this week before their Super Bowl LVIII game against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.
There’s no need to worry about it; that’s what it is that is. Ahan said on Opening Night at Allegiant Stadium, “We’re here, and we won’t change anything.”
News on ESPN earlier in the day said that some Niners employees were not pleased with the workout on the field.
In an interview with reporters, Shanahan said that the field has been getting better every day. When asked about it at his Monday conference conference, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that both experts and the NFL Players Association agreed that the turf was a good idea.
Goodell said, “That work has been done every single day.” “There were 23 experts there.” The union was out there.
They all agree that’s a great surface for playing on. It’s not as hard as what they’ve been practicing on, but it does happen.
It meets all of our testing requirements. We believe that all of our experts and neutral field inspectors have agreed that it is a playable field.