George Toma has worked as a groundskeeper at all 57 Super Bowls. This week, his streak comes to an end.
Toma confirmed to KCUR in Kansas City that he won’t be in Las Vegas for Super Bowl LVIII.
That means Toma’s last Super Bowl will be last year’s debacle in which players on both the Chiefs and Eagles slipped repeatedly on a poorly maintained field. But Toma insists that he wasn’t to blame for that, and that the field was in terrible shape when he arrived in Arizona for the game.
“I laid everything out for them,” Toma said. “So what happens to Super Bowl 57? It’s the worst game field I’ve ever seen before an NFL groundskeeper stepped on.”
Toma said that after a rehearsal for the halftime show before last year’s Super Bowl, he was shocked at what he saw when they pulled up the protective mat that was underneath the halftime show stage.
“When we pulled it up after practice, it was mud. Retracted mud,” said Toma. “And it was wet, wet, wet.”
Toma says he wishes NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell would talk to him about field conditions.
“I still love Roger Goodell, but he hasn’t given me 30 seconds. That’s all I want to this day,” Toma said.
It’s an unceremonious exit from Super Bowl groundskeeping for a man known as the Sodfather.
