A funny thing happened to the 49ers in late November while they were on their one-hour flight to Los Angeles to play a must-win game against the Rams.
Santa Clara County officials pulled their home and home stadium out from underneath them while they were in the air.
You just can’t make up this stuff. And in this ludicrous San Francisco season during which nothing seems to go right and a strange set of circumstances seems to be lurking around every corner, the 49ers being forced to find a new place to practice and play their home games on the fly at the beginning of the crucial December stretch run seems to fit right in with all the other craziness that has zapped the team in 2020.
“It was just extremely disappointing,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said.
For many in 49erland, so was the aftermath of the decision that had the 49ers relocating to Arizona during an unusual three-week road trip that had them living, practicing and playing their Week 13-14 scheduled home games at facilities normally used by their NFC West rival Arizona Cardinals.
It’s possible San Francisco could finish the season engaged in the very same scenario.
The 49ers were on their team airplane headed south when news came to San Francisco’s traveling party that Santa Clara County had imposed a ban on contact sports designed to curb the spread of COVID-19 in a Northern California region that’s been hit particularly hard by the novel coronavirus ever since the worldwide pandemic began in March.
This story is from the January 2021 edition of Niner Report.
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This story is from the January 2021 edition of Niner Report.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
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