It looks like the controversy involving the field conditions at Super Bowl LVII isn’t quite over yet. The NFL hasn’t had much to say about the slippery conditions at the game, but privately, the league has apparently been saying a lot.
According to Pro Football Talk, owners have been asking the league why the playing surface was so slippery, and the NFL has responded by pinning the blame on players from the Chiefs and Eagles for not wearing the right cleats in the game.
It’s an interesting stance for the league to take, especially since both teams felt that the field conditions were horrible. As a matter of fact, the field was so bad that Eagles pass-rusher Haason Reddick called it the “worst” surface that he’s ever played on.
“I’m not going to lie, it was the worst field that I’ve ever played on,” Reddick said after the game. “It was very disappointing. It’s the NFL. You would think it would be better so we could get some better play, but it is what it is. I don’t know, maybe the league will look at it and tell Arizona they got to step their stuff up.”
In the video below, you can see multiple instances of players slipping on the field:
The field conditions during the Chiefs’ 38-35 win also got a big thumbs down from George Toma. The man known as “The Sodfather,” who has worked all 57 Super Bowls as either a groundskeeper or consultant, pinned the blame on NFL field director Ed Mangan for overwatering the field and not sanding it enough. After seeing the final product, Toma noted that the field had a “rotten smell.”
After slipping and sliding all over the field in the first half, several Eagles players actually changed their cleats at halftime, but that didn’t seem to help much. If the new cleats were just as bad as the old cleats, that would seem to point to the field as being the primary reason for the slipping.
Not to mention, the Eagles and Chiefs both played…
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