The Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers will play in Week 11 on Monday night in Mexico City at Estadio Azteca. The elevation there is 7,200 feet above sea level, higher than any NFL stadium.
That could affect players with the thinner air.
Both teams are preparing differently for the change in elevation.
The 49ers traveled to Colorado Springs and its elevation of more than 6,000 feet to prepare for the game.
The Cardinals have elected not to do anything like that, even though they could travel a couple of hours to the north and train in Flagstaff, where the elevation is similar to Mexico City. They looked into it, though.
“Yeah, we looked at all options,” Kingsbury said Monday, praising strength and conditioning coach Buddy Morris for the work he did with it. “He did all sorts of research on it, and we felt like the program we could set up here for all the altitude training was really good and wouldn’t disrupt our routine, so they’ve been at it for the last two or three weeks.”
So the Cardinals have been preparing for the elevation over the last couple of weeks.
They will also arrive in Mexico a day earlier than normal. They would normally travel the day before the game but will travel on Saturday and actually have a walkthrough at the stadium on Sunday, so they will have an extra day for their bodies to get used to the difference in elevation, in addition to the training they have already done.
But ultimately, it will be about fighting through things.
“All of our guys have been on it trying to prep for that, but I know it’ll be a challenge either way whether you do that or not. We’ve just got to line up and try to play our best football.”
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