As the Giants and Packers prepare to play at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, there’s a concern about the playing surface.
As one source explained it to PFT, there’s an issue with seams in the artificial turf playing field. There are “deep dips” in the some portions of the seams connecting strips of fake grass. Last week’s injury to Vikings safety Lewis Cine on that same field occurred in the vicinity of one of the seams.
It’s a “BAD surface,” the source said.
Not bad enough to fail inspection, however. The NFL Players Association acknowledges that there is “a seam along the numbers that was the concern,” but that the field has officially “passed” the joint NFL-NFLPA pre-game review.
The NFL did not immediately respond to a text message seeking comment.
It’s unclear what would have happened if the playing surface had failed. Step one, presumably, would have been to try to fix it. Step two would have been, if it couldn’t be fixed, to not play the game.
Good luck with that one. At a time when the league’s international obsession has the Commissioner openly talking about a four-team division in Europe, abruptly pulling the plug on Green Bay’s first-ever game in England would have taken all air out of the 99 Luftballoons.
Beyond the havoc a canceled or delayed regular-season game in London could wreak on the schedule, the notion of sending a full stadium of English fans home because the much-hyped, state-of-the-art, two-sport venue has an unacceptable playing surface would set back by years the effort to grow the game beyond the borders of the United States.
Today’s game will be the last one this year at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. In three weeks, the Broncos and Jaguars play at Wembley, and the final European game of 2022 will be played in Germany. It will be interesting to see whether the playing surface at Tottenham Hotspur is any better come 2023.