49ers Complain UNLV Practice Field Is 'Too Soft'
The Niners are not happy with the conditions of their practice field, and they feel it's a disadvantage heading into the Super Bowl.
The San Francisco 49ers are in Las Vegas and set to practice at UNLV ahead of Super Bowl LVIII. But the team is concerned the playing surface isn't up to par.
Sources told CBS Sports that 49ers staffers are not pleased with the field at UNLV, where the league designated the NFC champions to practice this week. Reportedly, the NFL laid natural grass on top of UNLV's turf, and Niners' personnel feel the grass is too soft for the team to practice on.
"There already have been complaints that there are seams in the practice field, that it feels like they're walking around on a sponge," ESPN's NFL Insider Adam Schefter said on The Pat McAfee Show Monday.
According to Schefter, the NFL has rules that mandate the Super Bowl practice fields be checked out and up to standards by December. Instead, though, they laid sod just a week before the 49ers' arrival.
"I can tell you that the Niners are not happy with the practice conditions of that field that the league is in charge of maintaining, and they feel like it's a disadvantage right now," Schefter said.
The 49ers Are Not Pleased With Their Practice Field
Meanwhile, the Kansas City Chiefs are practicing at the Las Vegas Raiders' facility. And their field is just fine.
The league uses what they call the "Clegg" test to measure a field's firmness. NFL fields have to be at or below 100g (units of gravity) to pass. The average score should be in the mid- to high-70s. The Chiefs' Super Bowl practice field is at an 80. The Niners say theirs is somewhere in the 50s.
A bit unexpected for UNLV's $35-million state-of-the-art football headquarters, but Schefter says the school is really an "innocent bystander" in all of this. The field is the NFL's problem.
But for right now, at least, its the 49ers' problem.
The team is scheduled for a walk-through Monday afternoon. If need be, they'll consider alternatives. That could mean either bringing in firmer sod or negotiating with the league to share the Raiders' facility with their opponent.