The 49ers have been practicing at the University of Miami in preparation for Super Bowl LIV against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, but it almost didn't work out that way.
Going back to even before San Francisco advanced to the Super Bowl, the plan all along had been for the NFC representative to practice at "The U." But as NFL Media's Ian Rapaport reported Tuesday, representatives of San Francisco and the Green Bay Packers went out to Miami ahead of the NFC Championship Game to inspect the practice field conditions, and they came away extremely unsatisfied.
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"The Packers and the 49ers, the two potential participants in the Super Bowl, visited the site before the NFC title game," Rapaport said. "At that point, the University of Miami practice field was deemed unsafe. The NFL did their own test; they also deemed it unsafe. So basically that was the situation where they went to Miami and they said 'This field needs to be replaced.' "
According to Rapaport, the University of Miami initially balked at the idea of replacing its practice field. But when the 49ers then began considering alternative sites, "cooler heads prevailed and a resolution was reached ... that Miami would re-do their field at the 49ers' expense."
So, "The U" got a new practice field, and the 49ers didn't have to venture too far from Hard Rock Stadium, where their destiny awaits them.
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All's well that ends well, and for San Francisco's sake, hopefully the practice field is the last crisis the team has to avert this week.
Programming note: NBC Sports Bay Area feeds your hunger for 49ers Super Bowl coverage with special editions of “49ers Central” all week (8 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 9 p.m. Tuesday and 3 p.m. Saturday).
Also tune in at 1 p.m. on Super Bowl Sunday for a two-hour special of "49ers Pregame Live" with Laura Britt, Donte Whitner, Jeff Garcia, Ian Williams, Kelli Johnson, Greg Papa and Grant Liffmann. That same crew will have all the postgame reaction on "49ers Postgame Live," starting immediately after the game.