Kevin O'Connell
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Kevin O'Connell stated he is not concerned about the turf at Soldier Field.
Kevin O’Connell isn’t concerning himself with the turf at Soldier Field, at least not yet.
The Minnesota Vikings coach downplayed concerns about a potentially questionable playing surface when asked by Paul Allen on his weekly “Xs and Os” show.
The Vikings have Super Bowl expectations in their facility and will open the year against the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football. Though typically not a concern until later in the year, the field at Chicago’s east side has gotten a lot of use in the lead up to the finale of Week 1.
Why Is The Turf at Solider Field an Issue?
The Bears played two home preseason games but have not played at Soldier Field since Aug. 17.
Yet, between the 22-day hiatus between football games in Chicago, the field hosted concerts on five consecutive days — and huge acts, like Oasis Live with Cage the Elephant, My Chemical Romance, Lumineers and System of a Down for two straight nights — between Thursday and Labor Day.
More than 250,000 fans showed up at the five concerts, and each show was sold out. That means thousands of fans trampling standing on top of the natural grass, which Chicago switched back to from field turf in 2022.
WGN reported the field needed to be resodded after the near-weeklong slate of music acts, and the grounds crew representing a slower, more plodding and defensive-oriented team may want the surface to be slick, especially for an up-tempo team like the Vikings.
What Did Kevin O’Connell Say About The Turf At Soldier Field?
Presented with all that information, O’Connell didn’t bite about the turf as a concern Monday night — especially given the fact the field’s crews had an extra day to prepare for the first Bears game.
“This is professional football,” O’Connell said. “Our anticipation is the surface is going to be good enough to play on.”
So even though O’Connell admitted he was not concerned, he did take the opportunity to throw some shade the archrival Green Bay Packers and Lambeau Field.
“At this point, that is not incredibly high on my priority list,” O’Connell said. “But we’ve seen at another location here in the NFC North that happens to have grass and a unique climate, we’ve seen that surface play a major role before. We want to make sure that we’re doing our part to prepare our players. It’s something I will talk about with the guys. We’ll have the equipment available and we’ll go play football.”
Though field conditions could be advantageous to the Bears, O’Connell did acknowledge the fact Chicago could end up having the same issues.
“The guys in purple and white aren’t going to be the only ones playing on the surface,” O’Connell said. “We’ve got to do our best to establish, through a lot of different people once we arrive, got to have our players prepared to play on whatever the surface is.”
O’Connell also seemed to indicate his team was ready for an old-school, black-and-blue division affair.
“Truly, Monday Night Football. NFC North,” O’Connell said. “If they want to clear off some space in the parking lot, we can play out there.”