Due to the new restrictions in Santa Clara County, the San Francisco 49ers have been forced to find a new and temporary homefield.
The team will spend at least the next two weeks in Arizona using the Cardinals stadium as their “home.”
Players and coaches will be away from their families, and due to the league’s COVID-19 protocols, they will only be around one another on Zoom sessions and in socially distanced practices.
49ers coach Kyle Shanahan knows that’s a tough task during these times, and he spoke to his players about looking out for each other during this stretch.
“I just try to tell everyone, no matter what, when someone has a problem, whatever it is, there’s no problem too big or too small,” Shanahan said, via The Athletic. “A lot of guys keep that stuff internally, but I met with a bunch of the players and I grabbed about 20 of them last night and just told them to look out for that stuff and make sure that whether they come to me, a position coach, we have lots of people here who aren’t coaches or players who can help people. So, it’s just understanding that it’s human nature. Some stuff’s going to come up over the next three weeks and no one ignore it. Just always bring it to someone’s attention because the worst thing you could be in these situations is feel kind of alone on an island and we’ve got a big group going through it, so we can rally together and make sure we help each other through it.”
The 49ers are scheduled to “host” the Bills on Monday Night in Arizona and they then are scheduled to play another “home” game against the Washington Football Team.
Shanahan continued:
“I just try to stress to people is everyone’s going to be at different levels and some people are going to deal with this different than others. Someone who hits that wall, whatever it is, you read about the NBA players in the bubble and all the mental issues they went through and stuff. Those guys were at least allowed to hang with each other. We’re not, so we’re basically just in rooms here. Haven’t seen the guys except when we Zoom meet them and then when we go out to the field for walkthrough, so it’s not like we’re in a bubble hanging out. So, those things will build up on guys and each guy will handle it differently.”
Follow @MySportsUpdate on twitter for all the latest info from around the NFL.
Be the first to comment