NFLPA: 49ers' Super Bowl 58 Practice Field at UNLV 'Really Isn't Up to Snuff'

The NFL Players Association isn't happy with the practice conditions the San Francisco 49ers have had at UNLV in the lead-up to Super Bowl LVIII.

NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell told reporters that the school's practice field "really isn't up to snuff for what our players deserve."

"Hopefully we've gotten to a workable condition, but the mere fact that you're asking the question in our biggest event means that this is an issue," he added.

On Monday, Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports reported that the Niners weren't thrilled with the field conditions, feeling the turf was too soft. He added that the discontent was more about preference and less about safety concerns.

NFLPA president J.C. Tretter backed up that general assessment on Wednesday, though he didn't let the NFL off the hook.

"We need to raise the level to make surfaces high quality," he told reporters.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan said that the team was dealing with the surface.

"It is what it is," he told reporters. "We'll be all right. It's the field we got. We're good."

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, meanwhile, defended the practice conditions for the Niners.

"We've had 23 experts out there. We had the union out there. All of them think it's a very playable surface," he told reporters. "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."

Players and NFL officials have different standards when it comes to playing conditions, however. As Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk noted, an NFLPA survey indicated that "92 percent of players prefer to play on high-quality grass, six percent were indifferent to the difference between grass and synthetic turf, and of the two percent who prefer synthetic turf, most are kickers."

But just 15 of the NFL's stadiums feature natural grass, while 15 use synthetic turf.

"Moving all stadium fields to high quality natural grass surfaces is the easiest decision the NFL can make," Howell told reporters in September after New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles on the synthetic FieldTurf at MetLife Stadium. "The players overwhelmingly prefer it and the data is clear that grass is simply safer than artificial turf. It is an issue that has been near the top of the players' list during my team visits and one I have raised with the NFL."

According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, the NFL overlayed a sod field on top of UNLV's synthetic turf field in December, leading to a hardness rating in the 50s. The average NFL field has a hardness of 78, however, and none dip below 70.

As for the Kansas City Chiefs, the team is practicing at the Las Vegas Raiders' training facility ahead of Sunday's Super Bowl.