The San Francisco 49ers are being forced into a tough situation. New COVID-19 restrictions in Santa Clara County have forced the team to flee for the Arizona desert, where it will share State Farm Stadium with the Cardinals for at least the next few weeks, possibly the remainder of the season. However, that doesn't mean the 49ers will be any safer.
Maricopa County isn't doing any better than Santa Clara County when it comes to combating the pandemic. In fact, it is doing worse. It's just that local restrictions are less strict, and professional sports haven't been banned there.
Nothing's more indicative of our nation's handling of the pandemic than the 49ers' situation. They've been forced out of Santa Clara (CA) county bc of new COVID-19 policy. They're going to Maricopa (AZ) county.
Maricopa has nearly twice the cases per capita that Santa Clara has.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) December 2, 2020
The 49ers will leave today for Arizona, and none of the team's COVID-19 protocols will change during its extended road trip. Shanahan expects his players to be just as cautious as they have been. The 49ers placed several players on the reserve/COVID-19 list following their Week 10 game against the New Orleans Saints. That came after several players got together for about 30 minutes after dinner following the game.
Luckily, that came during the bye week, making the situation manageable.
In Arizona, the situation may actually be even easier to manage. The team will be staying at a hotel next to State Farm Stadium and practicing on neighboring fields. In essence, it will be in a bubble. Shanahan indicated that he wouldn't be against his players making other living arrangements that might allow family members to stay closer to the team, but not everyone would do that.
With the playoffs still a possibility, the 49ers want to avoid a disruption that might hurt the team's ability to go on a run in these final five games. They certainly want to avoid a situation like the one the Baltimore Ravens have been going through.
"So, when we're done with work, guys just go upstairs to their hotel room," Shanahan explained. "We can't sit there. You don't want to hang out and stuff. That's how people get in trouble, and that's how it spreads. That's what happened to us during our bye week at a hotel. So, we won't sit there and hang out at all. We'll work there, and then the guys will go up to their hotel room.
"My understanding, that's why I want to take a week to get there and just figure it out, but that's going to be our home for a few weeks."
Players will still be required to submit to daily COVID-19 testing and be smart with their time off. That will mean limiting, possibly eliminating, the exposure to the area outside of the bubble.
"My biggest concern that I told the players is we're very comfortable where we're at, just the protocols we have and stuff," Shanahan continued. "And we feel like we've gotten pretty good at being safe and how to avoid it, but now we're going to a new environment. It's still the same exact rules.
"I think COVID's a little bigger there than it is here from statistics some people have told me, so we've got to be smart. We're not trying to go anywhere, so I plan on guys staying in that hotel and being safe."