To end the 2015 season, the Super Bowl will be played at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. The 2015 preseason hasn’t even begun, and the turf there looks horrible.
Deadspin has a collection of photos and tweets that make clear the poor condition of the turf. In early August.
So they can replace it and replace it and replace it, in whole or in part, but it will never be any better than it is before a game is played on it. And a game currently hasn’t been played on it. And it looks awful.
When will the 49ers do what the Patriots did nine years ago, tearing up the grass field and installing a synthetic system? While a great grass field is better than FieldTurf, FieldTurf is better than a bad grass field.
Why don’t NFL teams insist on the best possible surface for their players? Owners make multi-million-dollar investments in their players, and yet they pinch pennies when the time comes for protecting those investments.
In Houston, where owner Bob McNair recently called out running back Arian Foster for his history of soft-tissue injuries, why isn’t anyone calling out McNair for having his team play on a crappy field that may have contributed to Jadeveon Clowney’s Week One torn meniscus and eventual microfracture surgery?
It’s time for the NFL, the NFLPA, and everyone else who cares about the game to start insisting that the games be played on fields that are conducive not only to player health and safety, but also to allowing them to play the game at the highest possible level, without having to worry about where their cleats are landing -- and what will happen once they do.
[Photo credit: Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle on Twitter]
