LAS VEGAS — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said league and independent inspectors have found the practice field set aside for the San Francisco 49ers is safe to use during Super Bowl week despite complaints from the team.
The Niners had expressed concern to the league that the field on UNLV’s campus is too soft but Goodell said the league has kept close tabs on it and cleared it for use. Sod was recently placed over the turf field on UNLV’s campus for the 49ers to use this week.
“We’ve had 23 experts out there. We had the union out there. All of them think it’s a very playable surface," Goodell said at his Super Bowl news conference on Monday. “It’s softer than what they practiced on, but that happens. It’s well within all of our testing standards. It’s something we think all of our experts, as well as neutral field inspectors, have all said unanimously that it’s a playable field.”
The Kansas City Chiefs, as the designated home team for the game, get to practice at the Las Vegas Raiders facility in nearby Henderson.
San Francisco held a walkthrough on the field Monday and won't hold the first practice there until Wednesday. If the team still has concerns after testing it out, they could ask the league for permission to practice at the Raiders facility at different times than the Chiefs.
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