Multiple Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns players were ‘outraged’ at the state of the grass at Acrisure Stadium on Sunday and reported the matters to the NFLPA, according to a report by Brooke Pryor of ESPN.
On top of that, players called the field ‘embarrassing.’ The NFLPA reported it to the league, who is now taking a look into the matter.
“The NFLPA has conveyed its concern to the NFL and will work to ensure that players are not put in that position going forward,” the source told ESPN.
The Steelers are already taking steps to make sure the field is much better for the team’s Sunday Night Football game against the Green Bay Packers in ten days. They re-sodded the field directly after the game, starting to grow new grass and a playing surface.
Steelers team captain and NFLPA rep Cam Heyward said that Miles Killebrew’s knee injury was caused by the surface, and it could have been worse if kicker Chris Boswell, who slipped on the turf, also went down with an injury.
“Honestly, it was (expletive),” Heyward said. “I lost one of my teammates and that makes me sad about it. I like grass, but that wasn’t grass we played on.”
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers called the surface ‘borderline unplayable’ while Mike Tomlin acknowledged the field was unusually ‘poor’ and ‘dry’ on Sunday. One week earlier, Pitt played Boston College, and Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi acknowledged the field was dry, causing footing issues even then.
“I thought the last game was not very good. And I thought it was a little shaky when I walked out there. It seemed dry. I don’t know why. It’s a drought. I mean, Mother Nature. I don’t know what it was. I know we’ve got a sprinkler system out there. But it just seemed really dry. And I caught the last two minutes of that Steeler game yesterday and I saw it, I was like, holy cow,” Narduzzi said.
Moving forward, the Steelers will and grounds crew at the stadium will have to make sure the grass is up to standards, especially if it continues to be a dry fall in Pittsburgh.
There will be multiple Pitt games happening around the same time, which will only add wear and tear to the playing surface over the weeks.
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