LAS VEGAS – NFL Players Association officials are strongly backing the 49ers’ concerns about their practice field ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl.
The 49ers went ahead Wednesday and held their first official practice of Super Bowl week at UNLV, where a soft, grass field was laid atop synthetic turf.
The thoroughly inspected field “really isn’t up to snuff for what our players deserve,” NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell Jr. said. “Yes, we are aware of the issue. Yes, through a combination of our player directors and consulting with the league, hopefully we’ve gotten to a workable condition.”
On Monday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell downplayed the field’s issues and it’s “playable”
NFLPA president J.C. Tretter took exception to that description.
“We talked last week that we need to raise the level to make both surfaces (grass and turf) high quality, and then a week later you’re saying it’s OK because it’s playable,” Tretter said. “Playable is not the same standard as high quality. It’s about as low as you can go to say it’s OK.”
Coach Kyle Shanahan shied away from any field criticism Monday night, saying he is “not worried about it at all. It is what it is. We won’t change anything.”
Tretter, during the NFLPA’s annual press conference, shed more light on what may have gone wrong with the surface.
“What the experts agree on is when you’re putting a grass-sod field over existing turf, you would put a hard, plastic cover over the turf before putting on the side,” Tretter said. “My understanding is that’s not what happened, which is adding to the issue of the softness of the field.
Related Articles
Kurtenbach: The 49ers have a foolproof plan to win the Super Bowl — feed Deebo Samuel
Back with a vengeance: 49ers’ ‘Miami Eight’ driven by Super Bowl loss to Chiefs
Updated ‘We’re the 49ers’ anthem features Purdy, Deebo, Kittle shoutouts
You can bet 49ers win Super Bowl LVIII, or what color Gatorade douses coach — but not in California
Christian McCaffrey takes first Super Bowl shot with 49ers hoping for same outcome as father Ed
“I don’t know how that falls through the cracks. I don’t know how that doesn’t happen if that’s supposed to work, and now we have this issue leading to the Super Bowl.”
