East Bay Times

Hotel's fire alarm gives some 49ers early wake-up call

- By Danny Emerman demerman@bayareanew­sgroup.com

The 49ers dealt with an involuntar­y alarm clock on Thursday morning when the fire alarm went off in their team hotel around 6 a.m.

With three days before Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, players lost a couple hours of prime sleep.

“Definitely lost about an hour of sleep,” All-Pro left tackle Trent Williams said. “Yeah, I got up, got dressed, walked out the door, then they told me it was a drill.”

The fire alarm is the latest wrinkle for the 49ers, whose leadup to Sunday's Super Bowl against the Chiefs hasn't been perfectly smooth. Their practice field, located at UNLV, has drawn concerns from the team and NFLPA about its quality.

“Any time sleep is disrupted, that's always tough, obviously,” safety Tashaun Gipson Jr. said. “A bit unfortunat­e, but the show must go on, man. Just kind of one of those days. Another bump in the road, nothing too major.”

Gipson said the alarm went off for about 15 minutes and he's “pretty sure nobody else went back to sleep.”

“If you didn't want to wake up at 6 in the morning, you sure did today,” Gipson said.

Multiple media outlets initially reported on the disturbanc­e, which was deemed a false alarm, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The fire alarm was first reported by Niners Nation's Akash Anavaratha­n.

“I was getting up at that time, anyway,” 49ers quarterbac­k Brock Purdy said. “Some guys wanted to sleep in a couple of extra minutes until the fire alarm went off. It is what it is.”

Head coach Kyle Shanahan said the coaching staff was already up at 6 a.m., when the alarm blared, but the players' first meeting of the day was at 8 a.m.

“We were in the basement, so we didn't actually hear it,” Shanahan said.

“But by the time I saw the players at 7 a.m. and asked them how their night was, they were all complainin­g about the fire alarm, all having to go outside and everything.

“I didn't realize how big of a deal it was until I met them and they showed me the video. So I think it was a pain for them — no one wants to get up at 6 and have to go outside when we don't have meetings until 8. But it is what it is.”

Williams, Gipson and their teammates are busy preparing for the Super Bowl, but they should have plenty of time to catch up on sleep.

“I'm not worried about it, it's all good,” Williams said.

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