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Nick Wagoner, ESPN Staff Writer
HENDERSON, Nev. – Seven minutes before George Kittle’s 6:10 a.m. alarm was set to go off, he and the rest of his San Francisco 49ers teammates were jarred awake by something else: the fire alarm at the team’s hotel on the outskirts of Las Vegas.
Kittle jumped out of bed, walked into his bathroom, closed the door and waited there for the next 18 minutes until the noise stopped. Nobody was forced to evacuate as engineers at the hotel said it was a false alarm.
But not every Niner was quite as nonplussed by the disturbance as Kittle. When he walked down to breakfast, he took an informal poll among his teammates to see who was the grumpiest because of the early wake-up call.
The answer: a tie between running back Christian McCaffrey and defensive end Nick Bosa, both of whom are notorious in San Francisco’s locker room for their devotion to routine.
“It had to be them,” Kittle said. “You don’t want to wake the sleeping bear. But Christian was not happy, too.”
Indeed, McCaffrey and Bosa were both still at least slightly agitated about it later on Thursday afternoon when they met with the media for the final time before Sunday’s Super Bowl LVIII against the Kansas City Chiefs.
During his availability, McCaffrey made it clear he didn’t believe the alarm was set off by accident.
“I think there’s no way it’s random,” McCaffrey said. “It’s part of it. It’s just more wood thrown on the fire.”
Like Kittle, Bosa was asleep when the alarm went off. He woke up and immediately texted the rest of the defensive line group chat, which he said was already full of complaints for the premature and loud wake up.
While Bosa took some solace in the fact that it was relatively close to a normal wake up time instead of 2 or 3 a.m., he agreed with McCaffrey that it was unlikely an accident and noted that this isn’t the first time the Niners or any other team has dealt with some hotel shenanigans on the road.
“I’m sure somebody did it,” Bosa said. “It kind of reminded me of Philly when they had this construction going on outside. It was early in the morning and they were like demolishing a bridge right outside of our hotel. We haven’t had the best luck. But no excuses.”
The fire alarm was the latest wrench thrown in what’s already been something of a trying run up to Sunday for the Niners. They have been and remain unhappy about the condition of the practice fields they’ve used at UNLV this week.
Niners officials, coaches and players have noted that the surface, which is sod laid over an artificial surface, is much softer than what is standard. Niners coach Kyle Shanahan said Wednesday that the team “will deal with the field how it is” which is why the team has not changed its practice schedule this week to move to a different practice setup.
The 49ers have one more workout at UNLV on Friday to wrap up the practice week.
“We’re just trying to get to Sunday and be as prepared as we possibly can,” Bosa said. “And if we have to deal with a couple more issues, we’re ready to do it.”