49ers practice field improperly prepared

HENDERSON, NEV. — JC Tretter, president of the NFL Players Association, said Wednesday that a rigid layer of plastic was supposed to be placed on top of UNLV’s practice fields but never was installed. “I don’t know how that doesn’t happen,” Tretter said.

The NFL placed natural grass on top of the Rebels’ field turf, with nothing in between, and San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan complained it was too soft. But Shanahan said the team will practice there all week instead of trying to find another field and another time for practice.

“This is the best choice we’ve got,” he said after Wednesday’s practice.

The 49ers are practicing at UNLV this week for Sunday’s Super Bowl against the Kansas City Chiefs. Kansas City is working out at the Las Vegas Raiders’ facility.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Monday that the playing surface at UNLV met the necessary standards and that the union signed off on it, as did 23 experts. “It’s softer than what they practiced on, but that happens,” Goodell said.

Tretter said the standards needed to be higher.

“‘Playable’ is not the same thing as ‘high quality,’” said Tretter, who retired in 2021 following a nine-season NFL career as a center. “It’s about as low as you can go to say it’s OK.”

49ers players raved about the other facilities at UNLV.

“I’m shocked because they’re in the Mountain West,” said safety Tashaun Gipson, who played in that conference at Wyoming. “I’m shocked the locker room is that nice. We’ve got to do better at Wyoming. The fields are the fields, but the weight room and everything is pretty decent.”

Bieniemy visits old team

Former Kansas City offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy talked with his former players and even attended meetings before the Chiefs played the Ravens in the AFC championship game.

Bieniemy was the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator for five seasons, but left after last season for the same position at Washington. After multiple failed attempts to land a head coaching job, he wanted to show he could be an effective offensive coordinator when no longer under the shadow of coach Andy Reid. But Commanders coach Ron Rivera was on the hot seat entering this season, and he and his staff were fired 8.

“His coaching future is great,” Reid said of Bieniemy. “I’m obviously a big fan of his, and I know the things he can do.”

Like father, like son

Kyle Shanahan has been around the NFL for almost as long as he can remember. He was just 4 when his father, Mike, got his first job in the NFL as an assistant in Denver, and the younger Shanahan followed along after that, frequently attending practices and games as his dad worked for the Broncos, Raiders and 49ers.

“You don’t realize how much it helps you until you get in it,” Kyle Shanahan said. “You just realize that a lot of the stuff you’ve been around and it makes it a little easier. Not only was I a son of a coach, but my dad’s the best coach I’ve ever been around. To be around that good of one also was a huge advantage for me.”

Peeling back the Kelce-Swift curtain

Chiefs president Mark Donovan gave a few local reporters the first glimpse behind the scenes of what it took to host Taylor Swift at games this season, beginning with the “week of” warning he got from tight end Travis Kelce.

“Very first conversation I had with Travis,” Donovan recalled, “I told him, ‘The one thing you can count on from us is we’re going to be very respectful. We’re going to respect your relationship first and foremost.’”

That meant the Chiefs didn’t play a Swift song in Arrowhead Stadium this season. Never showed her on the video boards unless they were showing all the celebrities in attendance. They certainly didn’t ask her to sing the national anthem.

“The first time we had her was, as you can imagine, full of meetings with security, police, how we’re getting her in, what we are going to hide, what we are not going to hide,” Donovan said. “How do you move a superstar like that, and do it safely? ... Typical Travis, we had this great protocol for leaving, exactly how we were going to do it, and he grabs her in a convertible and takes off.”