If there may be one side of sports activities which the NFL ought to have an unquestioned experience, it needs to be within the upkeep of its enjoying surfaces. If the NBA and NHL can share stadiums and puzzle piece courts collectively over ice, then the NFL ought to have the ability to have the grass in pristine situation on the Tremendous Bowl host metropolis. For a second-consecutive season, there’s a extremely publicized turf drawback. The San Francisco 49ers are, reportedly, not pleased with their apply discipline.
A number of NFL insiders reported on Monday that the sector at UNLV was lower than the requirements the 49ers anticipated. Even earlier than the gamers stepped onto the sector, staff officers had been displeased with the floor. They believed that it was too soft, it felt spongy, and put the staff at a drawback. A doable reason for this is likely to be that UNLV practices on discipline turf, so the NFL needed to lay a grass floor on high, which the league did solely per week in the past.
At Tremendous Bowl Opening Evening, the gamers deferred questions concerning the high quality of the apply discipline to move coach Kyle Shanahan. His response was that the staff just isn’t altering apply location and is resigned to what they must work with for the remainder of the week.
“It’s what it’s,” Shanahan said to the media. “We’ll be alright. It’s the sector we obtained.”
Throughout his Monday press convention, Roger Goodell defended the situation of the sector. He stated that, whereas the floor is softer than the 49ers are accustomed to, it was permitted by specialists.
Final season, the Tremendous Bowl floor situation was the sport discipline at State Farm Stadium. Gamers from each the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles had been critical of it after the sport when talking to the media. Frank Clark stated that it was “type of horrible.” Jordan Mailata stated “it was like a water park on the market.”
A league that’s pulling in practically $20 billion in income each season, and sells Tremendous Bowl tickets for hundreds of {dollars}, is scuffling with the fundamentals. It’s unhealthy sufficient that MetLife Stadium swallows achilles and ACLs entire, however that’s a synthetic floor. As a lot debate as there may be surrounding discipline turf, the NFL can not even get pure grass proper. There have been complaints about the grass at Levi Stadium for Tremendous Bowl 50, too.
The person who labored on each Tremendous Bowl discipline from the primary to the 57th, George Toma, spoke final yr about how he has been compelled to cope with extra discipline issues in recent times than up to now. He was not about to take the blame for what occurred in Glendale, Ariz. Each of his Dan Le Batard Present with Stugotz interviews will sound silly to those that aren’t conversant in the present, however Toma made a powerful case that the league has an institutional drawback with the way in which that it maintains its enjoying surfaces. In line with a Kansas Metropolis Star profile from 2018, Toma is a genius in relation to taking good care of fields, so whereas he rambles a bit, he does know what he’s speaking about.
Within the phrases of Johnny Tapia in Dangerous Boys II, “This can be a silly f-cking drawback to have.” Stadiums are constructed within the NFL with 200 luxurious suites and world-class facilities, however the precise enjoying surfaces depart a lot to be desired.
The NFL has a lot cash that it would as properly be the Federal Reserve. The {dollars} fly into the staff homeowners’ pockets from clients, networks, sponsors, and extra. It’s the most profitable product within the historical past of tv. One would suppose {that a} enterprise of this magnitude may have the ability to do the job of a park district and hold its fields in fine condition. I assume that’s too huge of an issue even for the massive brains within the proprietor’s bins and on Park Avenue. Good luck to them as they attempt to roll grass on MetLife Stadium and different services for the World Cup in two years.