San Francisco 49ers keep Super Bowl practice schedule despite concerns about field

LAS VEGAS, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- The San Francisco 49ers will stay at their designated Super Bowl practice facility, despite concerns about the condition of the field surface at UNLV's Fertitta Football Complex in Las Vegas, coach Kyle Shanahan said.

Shanahan addressed the issue at Super Bowl Opening Night on Monday at Allegiant Stadium. Reports surfaced earlier in the day citing 49ers staff members who allegedly were not satisfied with the firmness level of the field.

The NFL had laid natural grass over the artificial turf surface before the 49ers' arrival.

The 49ers are to practice at the site Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. They will then meet the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium.

"We're not going to completely change our schedule and do something crazy," Shanahan told reporters Monday. "We'll deal with what we got."

The Chiefs will hold their practices this week at the Las Vegas Raiders' training facility in Henderson, Nev. That state-of-the art venue opened in 2020.

The 49ers held a walkthrough Monday on the UNLV campus.

"It was a little soft," 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa said of the practice field. "It's a little weird with the grass on top of the turf, but we will see on Wednesday how it plays."

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell addressed the 49ers' field concerns Monday night at his annual Super Bowl news conference. He said the field was deemed safe by experts and other officials.

"That work is being done every single day," Goodell told reporters. "We had 23 experts out there. We had the players' union out there. All of them think it's a very playable surface.

"It's softer than what they have practiced on, but that happens. It's well within all of our testing standings. It's something that we think all of our experts, as well as neutral field inspectors have all said, unanimously, that it's a playable field."

Players and coaches taking issue with playing surfaces has become commonplace in recent years in the NFL.

Last year, players from the Philadelphia Eagles and Chiefs were critical of the condition of the field being too slippery for Super Bowl LVII at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. Both teams struggled to find their footing in that game, leading some players to change their cleats.

Players also continue to take issue with artificial turf fields used around the league, as studies show those surfaces are more likely to lead to non-contact, lower-extremity injuries.

Goodell, asked Monday if he would support natural grass for all stadiums, said team owners and the players' union are working together to study the issue.

"We want to try to get the best possible field surfaces," Goodell said. "That is something that varies from market to market, climate from climate."

The retractable, natural grass field for Super Bowl LVIII was rolled outside of Allegiant Stadium, which has a roof, on Monday as players and reporters used the facility for interviews. Morning and afternoon rain watered the surface before it was covered with a tarp.

Super Bowl LVIII will kick off at 3:30 p.m. local time (6:30 p.m. EST). The game will air on CBS.