The San Francisco 49ers nearly had to move their entire operations away from the University of Miami ahead of Super Bowl LIV, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network. The NFL insider explained on Tuesday what happened over the last few weeks that may have caused a significant problem for the NFC Champions.
Rapoport describes the situation as a "crisis averted."
Both the 49ers and the Green Bay Packers sent representatives to the University of Miami's facilities before the NFC Championship Game to investigate the field conditions. At that time, the school's practice field was deemed "unsafe" by both teams, as well as NFL officials.
The league informed the University of Miami that the field would need to be replaced, which the school did not want to do.
"From what I'm told, initially, the University of Miami said, 'It took us a year to grow this field. We would not like for it to change at all,'" said Rapoport.
That's when the 49ers started to look into other options for practice facilities leading to Super Bowl LIV. With the possibility of losing out on hosting the NFC Champions, local officials got involved, and a resolution was reached.
The University of Miami redid their field at the 49ers' expense, and the NFL team kicked off its week there on Monday with a walk-through.
"That is why the 49ers did not have to move anywhere," added Rapoport.