Why the Chiefs and 49ers are staying in Lake Las Vegas, not on The Strip (2024)

Two days from now, the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers will meet in Las Vegas' Allegiant Stadium to decide this season's NFL champion.

Kansas City is chasing its third Super Bowl victory in five years. San Francisco seeks its first since 1995.

Follow here for news and live coverage from the week's festivities in the lead-up to the game.

The essentials

Game date and time: Sunday, Feb. 11 at 6:30 p.m. ET

How to watch: CBS, Paramount+ (streaming)

Odds: 49ers -2, Total 47.5 (via BetMGM)

Required reading

• Is 49ers’ Brock Purdy the next Drew Brees? We asked an expert — Brees himself
• Why the Chiefs and 49ers are staying in Lake Las Vegas, not on The Strip
• CBS broadcast crew on Super Bowl LVIII, Taylor Swift and Las Vegas: ‘There is nothing that’s bigger’
• Chiefs vs. 49ers Super Bowl 58 expert picks, odds: Early predictions mostly with Kansas City

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Find the best deals on tickets to see your favorite team.

LAS VEGAS — It’s not unusual for the NFL to be meticulous in its security planning leading up to the Super Bowl. For an event of its magnitude, it only makes sense.

In preparing for Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, however, the league also appears to have been strategic in deciding where its participating teams would reside for the week. The Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers won’t be staying anywhere near the iconic Las Vegas Strip.

Leading up to the Feb. 11 game, the NFL, Las Vegas city officials and corporate sponsors have endlessly pushed all of the positives that’ll come from hosting the city’s first Super Bowl. It’s expected to be a financial boon, is projected to bring in hundreds of thousands of tourists and is surely the most significant statement to date that Vegas has evolved into a major player in the sports world.

But before Sin City became a burgeoning sports landscape, the city was effectively blackballed for decades by professional sports leagues because of the negative stigma that came with the city’s off-field attractions, like gambling, nightlife and other not-safe-for-work activities.

Events such as the 2007 NBA All-Star Game seemed to justify that narrative. It resulted in over 400 arrests, including then-NFL cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones for his alleged involvement in a shooting that left a strip club security guard paralyzed.

Las Vegas businesspeople were eventually able to push through, however, as the city became home to NHL, WNBA, NFL and (soon) MLB franchises in addition to hosting large-scale events like the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix with the help of the proliferation of legal sports betting. Still, the dark side of the city’s many trappings is something of which professional sports leagues remain astutely aware.

That’s probably part of why the Chiefs and 49ers, after landing in Vegas on Sunday, had a decent trip to get to their hotels. The Chiefs will be staying at the Westin Lake Las Vegas Resort and Spa while the 49ers will reside at the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort and Spa. The properties are located about 25 miles east of The Strip.

“We traditionally have teams stay a distance from the stadium and from a city where there’s room enough for the club and family,” NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller said last week. “Most clubs prefer a quieter environment. Obviously, they’ve got their eyes set on their one specific goal, and any distraction during that week is a distraction they don’t want to deal with. So, I don’t think that it’s too terribly different from previous years.”

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Teams have traded up or into the first round to select a quarterback 28 times in the past 30 drafts dating back to 1994. Patrick Mahomes has won 14 playoff games in his six seasons as a starter entering Sunday’s game against the 49ers. The other 27 quarterbacks who were selected after a team traded up have combined for 36 postseason wins. Ten of those victories (one in the Super Bowl) belong to Joe Flacco, who was selected 18th by the Ravens in 2008 after Baltimore moved up by trading the 26th pick along with third- and sixth-round selections to the Texans. Eight of those wins (two in the Super Bowl) belong to Eli Manning, the No. 1 pick of the Giants in 2004 after New York traded the No. 4 pick, a future first-round pick and other compensation to the Chargers.

That leaves 18 playoff wins for the other 25 quarterbacks.

Seventeen of the 28 quarterbacks who were acquired via first-round trade never won a playoff game with the teams that drafted them, and only nine of those quarterbacks signed an extension with the teams that drafted them before the expiration of their respective rookie contracts. (Note: Jordan Love of the Packers, Justin Fields of the Bears and Bryce Young of the Panthers are all still playing on their rookie contracts with their original teams and could land extensions.)

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LAS VEGAS — “Look at him.”

Brock Purdy was one of the local high school players being honored before an Arizona Cardinals game in 2016 when his coach, Preston Jones, tugged on his arm and had him study the NFL players warming up a few yards away.

Jones pointed to one in particular.

“The Cardinals were playing the Saints that day,” Jones recalled. “And Drew Brees was there. And we got pretty close to him. And I said, ‘Brock, look, you’re just as tall as that guy, man. You’re the same size.’ And Brock just had a big grin on his face and I remember him saying, ‘I know.’”

Nearly eight years later, it’s Brees, a 13-time Pro Bowler and the MVP of Super Bowl XLIV, who’s most often cited as a comparison for the up-and-coming Purdy, 24, who leads the San Francisco 49ers into Super Bowl LVIII against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.

The physical resemblance is undeniable. The quarterbacks are nearly the same height — a little over 6 feet and thus well below the ideal for an NFL quarterback — and Brees was one pound heavier, 213 pounds, before their respective drafts. They even ran virtually the same time in the 40-yard dash (Brees was one one-hundredth of a second faster).

Both were knocked early for having average arms and below-average height. But they made up for their lack of stature with exceptional processing speed (their S2 cognition test scores also were similar), an uncanny calmness and a desire to prove detractors wrong. Brees said he thought Purdy’s time at Iowa State probably was a lot like his at Purdue.

“Most of the teams that you step on the field against, you’re kind of outmatched,” he said with a laugh. “You’re probably an underdog. And so I think you just develop a little of this fearlessness, a little bit of this chip on your shoulder. But also a bit of a calm and a poise.”

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During the CBS broadcast of the Christmas Day game between the Las Vegas Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs, producer Jim Rikhoff had some fun with his announcers by using computer-generated imagery to place Jim Nantz, Tony Romo and Tracy Wolfson on a Caesars Palace-esque outdoor marquee with the words, “FEATURING THE CBS SPORTS RAT PACK SUPER BOWL LVIII.”

“I made some crack like, ‘Hey, The Rat Pack will be there on Feb. 11 to call the game,'” said Nantz. “Leave it to Tony to say, ‘Yeah, and I’m Frank Sinatra.’ I said, ‘You know what? You are actually a lot more like Dean Martin.'”

Las Vegas has hosted an endless parade of stars, but no event, if judged by pure eyeballs, will be bigger than Super Bowl LVIII on Feb. 11 at Allegiant Stadium between the Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers. It is the 22nd Super Bowl CBS will air — the most by any network — with kickoff coming around 6:30 p.m. ET after 6 1/2 hours of pregame content on CBS.

Nantz, Romo and Wolfson have worked 14 Super Bowls between them, including eight for Nantz (six as play-by-play and two as host), four for Wolfson and two for Romo.

“There is nothing that’s bigger (than this),” Nantz said. “The biggest and the best have come to Vegas, and now we actually are going to have the chance, the responsibility, to document the single biggest event in the history of Las Vegas.”

There seem to be five silly questions for every serious one asked on Opening Night, and Brandon Aiyuk said the one he got over and over on Monday was, “What is your favorite flavor of Gatorade?”

The 49ers’ receiver cut those off quickly.

“Gatorade doesn’t sponsor me, so I don’t have a favorite flavor,” he said flatly.

Aiyuk also got a ladybug question, which of course stemmed from his interview immediately following the 49ers’ conference championship win in which he told Fox reporter Erin Andrews that a ladybug landed on his cleat and that it foreshadowed his tumbling, game-changing 51-yard catch in the third quarter.

On Monday, he said his girlfriend is the one who told him that ladybugs bring luck and that she always seems to see a ladybug when she’s with Aiyuk’s sister, Maya.

So when one landed on his shoe during pre-game warm-ups, Aiyuk became excited and told one of the assistant coaches what it meant. He said the coach seemed skeptical, but that everyone was a believer after the catch.

“The rest is history,” he said.

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Will either kicker hit the upright or crossbar on a missed field goal or extra point attempt?

Yes +400; no -700

We’ll call this the doink bet. This can be found on a couple of sites with different odds because there is precedent here. Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker smacked a 42-yard attempt off the top of the left upright in the first quarter of the Super Bowl last season. Butker is back in the big game with the Chiefs. Could he be cooking up a sequel? Doinks are rare in the NFL, but nerves will be at an all-time high.

LAS VEGAS — Kadarius Toney knew he was back in the spotlight. He dressed accordingly, too — designer sunglasses, diamond earrings in the shape of a cross and a shiny gold chain.

Still, the mercurial Kansas City Chiefs receiver tried to be low-key during Super Bowl opening night Monday at Allegiant Stadium. When speaking with several reporters, Toney often bowed his head and didn’t raise his voice. Toney expressed — over and over again — that he wanted to remain humble, have the correct mindset and stay motivated to help the Chiefs accomplish a feat that hasn’t been achieved in two decades: a reigning champion defending its crown.

Toney, though, did want to reiterate part of his last public message, the one he shared with everyone nine days ago through his Instagram account.

“Yeah, I’m good,” Toney said of his health, declaring himself available to play in Sunday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers.

The question looming over Toney, of course, is this: Will coach Andy Reid let him play in the season’s most important game?

“I’m doing everything I can to show that I’m an asset,” said Toney, who hasn’t played since Dec. 17 when the Chiefs beat the New England Patriots. “At the end of the day, it’s not my call. I’m just here.”

Just hours before the Chiefs played the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship Game, in a rant on Instagram Live, Toney expressed that he didn’t have hip or ankle injuries that the Chiefs listed him with. The day before the game, the Chiefs listed Toney as out because of personal reasons and a hip injury.

“I’m not hurt, none of that s—!” Toney shouted on Instagram Live.

The next day, Reid said the Chiefs didn’t make up any Toney injury reports.

On Monday night, Toney said he believed someone edited the audio to make his comments appear more negative toward the Chiefs instead of presenting his comments in full.

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Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo said he likes to watch the broadcast version of a game because it offers close-up shots of players’ faces — their reaction to plays — that he can’t see on the coach’s film.

He said he was curious about Brock Purdy, who will be the third-youngest quarterback to start a Super Bowl, and thought the 49ers’ passer might show his age at times. He didn’t.

“He never looked rattled,” Spagnuolo said. “He always looked really poised. I think he’s been impressive.”

Spagnuolo was asked about several 49ers’ offensive players during a media scrum Monday but kept coming back to the Purdy.

“I was expecting to put on the film and see somebody that’s a backup quarterback, that had a weakness somewhere,” he said. “But the timing of his throws, the anticipation of his throws is really impressive to me. And the fact that he can scramble like a really good athlete — that was really impressive, too. I didn’t know that about him.”

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From undrafted and unwanted, James Harrison willed his way into the NFL to become one of the most intimidating edge rushers in league history.

His career arc was a story of perseverance. After being cut numerous times by the Pittsburgh Steelers (and once by the Baltimore Ravens), he earned a roster spot in Pittsburgh in 2004 only after outside linebacker Clark Haggans broke his hand in a weightlifting accident. After securing the team’s trust as a special teams daredevil, Harrison finally got his first start later that year when Joey Porter was ejected because of a pre-game fight against the Cleveland Browns.

“Thank god Joey got in that fight,” Steelers owner and president Art Rooney II said with a smirk.

But for a player who earned his keep thanks to a tireless dedication to building his body behind the scenes, Harrison’s greatest moment came exactly 15 years ago on the biggest stage: Super Bowl XLIII on Feb. 1, 2009 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla.

To cap the season in which he would be named NFL Defensive Player of the Year, Harrison produced one of the greatest plays in Super Bowl history, intercepting Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner on the goal line and returning it 100 yards for a touchdown.

“That’s the most outstanding defensive play I’ve ever seen,” former Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau said. “And it’s certainly my favorite play, backed up. Only a close second would be Ben (Roethlisberger’s) pass to (Santonio) Holmes to win the damn game.”

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NFL players largely prefer grass and believe turf is more likely to cause injury. Despite that, the league and its owners haven’t been willing to commit to installing grass fields in all 32 stadiums. It’s something that the NFL and NFLPA are in constant discussion about, but there doesn’t seem to be a resolution on the horizon.

“This has been a major focus with our union,” Roger Goodell said Monday. “We’ve worked with experts to try to study this question. It’s not always just grass vs. synthetic. We think hybrid is something to really explore. That’s actually what they use in international soccer. … Additionally, we’ve got a little different circ*mstance. If you’re playing in domes for 4 1/2 months, it’s pretty hard to grow grass.

“But we want to try to get the best possible playing surface. It varies from market to market and climate to climate. One of the things that we think is really important is consistent. And when I say consistency, it’s not just the game day playing surface, but it’s the consistency of what players are practicing on. That consistency is really important according to our engineers and our experts. We’re looking at that with the players association and, hopefully, we can find a better solution.”

Last year’s Super Bowl suffered from poor field conditions, which has increased the focus on the field that’ll be used at Allegiant Stadium for Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday. There’s already been field drama this week with the 49ers complaining about the practice field surface at UNLV. The NFL can’t afford for similar issues to arise on gameday again.

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“Not good enough. Not good enough at all.”

That was Fred Warner’s assessment of a San Francisco 49ers’ defense that’s been sliding over the second half of the season and that’s been giving up a leaky 5.6 yards per carry in the playoffs.

Warner knows a similar performance won’t cut it against Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who is 3-0 against San Francisco and who found a way to beat an even better 49ers unit four years ago in the Super Bowl.

“We rely on winning games on defense,” Warner said of the standard the 49ers have set in recent years. “Holding teams to minimal points, suffocating teams, dictating how the game’s going. And that hasn’t been the case the last two games.”

“Effort” was the buzzword on Thursday, the 49ers’ first practice since their comeback NFC Championship Game win over the Detroit Lions on Sunday. The team’s most outspoken defensive leaders, Warner and defensive end Nick Bosa, said that effort has been inconsistent and hasn’t been playoff caliber. Earlier in the week, head coach Kyle Shanahan went a step further when he said the defensive pursuit on two long Lions touchdown runs was as bad as it had been all season.

Many observers thought Shanahan was pointing a finger at the defensive linemen, some of whom seemed to be loafing on Jahmyr Gibbs’ 15-yard touchdown scamper in the second quarter. Shanahan on Thursday clarified that the issue was all over the field on “about two to three” plays.

“There were a few backside people who weren’t going and they were expecting someone else to make the tackle,” he said. “Whenever you’re expecting someone else to make the tackle, bad things happen.”

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There were four head coaches of color hired this offseason. Overall, there are now nine head coaches of color, which is an NFL record. Roger Goodell was pleased with that progress, believing that the slowed hiring process played a factor and thinks that league programming such as the NFL coach accelerator program has made a difference. At the same time, he recognized that there’s still room for improvement.

“We still have a lot of work to do,” Goodell said. “We are not satisfied with where we are.”

For instance, there are currently zero offensive coordinators of color. Given the majority of head coaching hires come from the offensive side of the ball, that could prevent the number of head coaches of color from continuing to rise if it isn’t corrected. The NFL has instituted programming such as requiring every team to have a full-time diverse offensive assistant, but it hasn’t rendered results.

“I don’t think it means it’s not working,” Goodell countered. “These offensive assistants are young, and they need the ability to have the exposure and the experience to grow to be able to become offensive coordinators and then head coaches. I think it’s too early to say it’s not working. I don’t accept that.”

Goodell was also asked whether contract language such as what the New England Patriots used to promote Jerod Mayo this offseason without conducting outside interviews could potentially be used to subvert the Rooney Rule. That was another notion that he quickly rejected.

“(Patriots owner) Robert Kraft made that commitment a year ago in the contract with Jerod Mayo,” he said. “It said that if (former Patriots head coach) Bill Belichick is not the head coach, you’ll be the head coach. I think that’s smart management. Ultimately, we all want to keep our people and develop our people. He knew that Jerod Mayo was head coach material. I think that’s a very positive trend. I don’t believe it’s skirting the Rooney Rule. I actually believe it’s benefiting our players and our coaches to have that kind of stability in our clubs.

“I don’t think that’s proven to be a subversion of (the Rooney Rule). I don’t see that. If that becomes reality, we’ll have to address that. But, again, I think that’s a really smart approach to be able to develop our own personnel and put them in a position to become head coaches.”

Maybe Goodell is right, but the more important aspect here is that the NFL doesn’t allow progress from a racial standpoint to cause them to get complacent. History has shown us that, if they do, things can regress rapidly.

LAS VEGAS — Ahead of Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell held a news conference for his annual state of the league address with reporters inside the Las Vegas Raiders locker room at Allegiant Stadium on Monday.

With Las Vegas hosting the Super Bowl for the first time, it only made sense that the NFL’s evolving relationship with gambling was the prevailing theme. As the prevalence of legalized sports betting has increased throughout the U.S., doubts about the integrity of the game have intensified.

“While people can speculate and people can have perceptions, we have to hold that standard as high as we possibly can,” Goodell said. “I haven’t heard an awful lot of it, but you do hear it. There are people that say those things, whether they’re irresponsible or not. I think we’ve proven it in the way we’ve enforced those rules.”

Read more from Goodell’s State of the League address here.

At Super Bowl LVIII opening night Monday, Travis Kelce drew a large group of media members. It wasn’t long before the Kansas City Chiefs tight end was asked about his girlfriend Taylor Swift, the music superstar who won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year on Sunday night.

“She’s rewriting the history books,” Kelce said of Swift’s Grammy accolades. “I told her I need to hold up my end of the bargain and bring home some hardware, too.”

Read more here.

If it's a close game, late in the fourth quarter, is Brock Purdy prepared to disappoint ... Taylor Swift?

"Yes," the 49ers QB calmly replied. "I'll leave it at that."

Got a little from injured Chiefs left guard Joe Thuney, who's dealing with a pectoral injury and didn't play in the AFC Championship. He's not sure if he can practice this week.

"We'll know later in the week as the game gets closer. Still just taking it day-by-day. I'm just going to do what I can and we'll see where the chips fall."

Pro-49ers crowd at media night. They chanted “Pur-dy” when the 49ers QB spoke on stage and booed Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid when he spoke