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The 49ers’ road to the Super Bowl? It goes through … well … the road.
The contingent of 50 or so large, lumbering men who wear red and gold on Sundays had better get used to hotel beds and airplane seats. That is where they’ll get the lion’s share of their rest over the remaining nine weeks of the regular season.
On the other side, the ultimate reward: the possibility of winning the Super Bowl without leaving California after Jan. 10 if they wrap up home-field advantage.
But first, they’ve got to get there. And that will mean taking care of business away from the creature comforts of home. Six of the 49ers’ final nine games will take place away from Levi’s Stadium, starting this week at AT&T Stadium against the Cowboys.
May as well jump in the deep end.
When the team boarded its charter flight to Dallas this weekend, they (hopefully) had more than a week’s worth of socks and underwear in their suitcases. From there, the Niners go on to Colorado Springs, where they will practice at altitude to prepare for next Sunday night’s game in Mexico City (elevation: 7,350 feet).
A typical NFL road trip wouldn’t net more than two nights’ worth of hotel points. The 49ers will spend the next eight nights in strange beds spread across three cities. (To which a chorus of MLB and NBA players laugh, “Ha, so what!”)
“Just being away for a while, I think adds up,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. “Just guys being away from the routine of their families and things like that, so that usually gets old by the end and everyone’s screaming to get back.”
The 49ers have done this once before this season. They flew halfway around the world and got to Australia a full week in advance of their season opener against the Rams.
That turned out well enough, didn’t it?
“Anytime you change the elements of stuff like going to Mexico City, just the altitude and everything, it’s just good to get acclimated,” Shanahan said. “Going to Australia was good because of the time difference, so we had to do that. Going to Mexico City, just how high the altitude is, it helps us going to Colorado for a week.
“It’s things that we feel helps us a little bit during the game which makes it worth it, but it does get old to be away for that long.”
Shanahan had better get used to it. His guys won’t get more than one week at home in between road trips the rest of the season. It’s Mexico City and back to Santa Clara, and on to New York, and back to Santa Clara, and off to Los Angeles and Kansas City, and back to Santa Clara before wrapping up the regular season in Arizona.
“I think the challenge is how present can you be in the moment?” linebacker Fred Warner said. “To me, there is no tomorrow after the Dallas game.”
This was the deal with the devil, or well, the NFL schedule makers, that the team signed up for, albeit begrudgingly, when it was able to spend almost a full month in Santa Clara following its globe-trotting start to the season. Shanahan hasn’t tried to hide his disdain.
In theory, the three straight home games they enjoyed after getting back from Australia eased their acclimation back to Pacific time. But it also guaranteed a daunting back half of the season.
“I mean, three home games is irrelevant. That doesn’t mean anything,” Shanahan said back when the schedule was released in the spring. “It means you’re going to have three more road games in December and January. So that’s my answer on three home games.”
The 49ers, at least, can take some comfort that they took full advantage of the front-loaded home slate. They enter this stretch with just one blemish on their record, a commanding lead in the NFC West and in control of their own fate for the No. 1 overall seed.
Mostly due to their intercontinental travel, the 49ers will log more miles in the air than any other NFL team this season — a staggering 37,862, per the NFL. They don’t seem to mind.
It’s not just the 49ers Faithful who travel well.
Under Shanahan, the fans who paint opposing stadiums red have been just as likely to see a win as anybody attending a game at Levi’s Stadium. The 49ers have racked up a 44-34 record away from home since 2017, tied for the NFL’s seventh-best road record.
That’s about to be put to the test.
After the Cowboys, the 49ers have games against the Vikings, Giants and Chiefs — all away from the friendly confines of Levi’s Stadium.
The reward if they can take care of business?
Up to three playoff games at Levi’s — and possibly one more at Levi’s South.
