The last time the Pittsburgh Steelers played at Acrisure Stadium, the playing surface came under fire in the Steelers’ 23-9 win over the Cleveland Browns.
That day, safety Miles Killebrew was lost for the season with a knee injury, and kicker Chris Boswell slipped on a field goal attempt and escaped injury on a bad field. It’s unclear if the surface had anything to do with Killebrew’s knee injury, but the conditions that day certainly couldn’t have helped.
Those conditions ultimately led to plenty of complaints from players to the NFLPA, citing player safety issues. The stadium management had already planned on resodding the field prior to the issues.
Now, with the resodding complete, the Steelers are set to get back onto the field at Acrisure Stadium Sunday night against the Green Bay Packers in primetime. Ahead of that matchup, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has no concerns over the playing surface, simply because he doesn’t know any better.
“Not from my perspective, man, I am not a grass expert,” Tomlin said about any concerns regarding the playing surface, according to video via the Steelers’ YouTube page. “I ain’t cut my grass in a long, long time. I coach football, I’m gonna stay in my lane.
“I don’t even know who cuts my grass.”
What an answer from Tomlin. A good one, too.
There are bigger things to worry about for Tomlin heading into the Week 8 matchup with the Packers, like his team being able to stop the Packers’ run game led by Josh Jacobs, or finding a way for his offense to create chunk plays against one of the stingiest teams in football.
But the topic of the playing surface is a big one. That discussion resurfaced (pun intended) Monday when Pitt Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi said on 93.7 The Fan that he should have called Tomlin to tell him about the playing surface after Pitt’s game against Boston College on October 4. It was in bad shape then, and it only got worse in the game between the Steelers and Browns.
Now, it should be in better shape Sunday night against the Packers after the Acrisure Stadium grounds crew resodded the field, sprucing things up for the stretch drive inside the stadium.
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