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Brooke Pryor
PITTSBURGH — Players from the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns expressed “outrage” and concerns to the NFL Players Association about the “embarrassing” playing surface at last weekend at Acrisure Stadium, a union source told ESPN.
“The NFLPA has conveyed its concern to the NFL and will work to ensure that players are not put in that position going forward,” the source said Wednesday.
Some players said the field, which was already scheduled to be re-sodded after the game, was “dry.” Steelers offensive lineman Broderick Jones was one of multiple players who said they “kicked up chunks of grass” when they made explosive movements.
League spokesman Brian McCarthy said Wednesday that the NFL has “been in touch with both the union and the club, which has taken steps to replace the grass surface.”
“I thought it was poor yesterday,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said Monday about the field conditions. “I’m not concerned going forward. It’s my understanding that that turf is going to be swapped out, but I certainly acknowledge it was a concern yesterday.”
Steelers kicker Chris Boswell slipped on the turf as he attempted and missed a fourth-quarter field goal, and special teams captain Miles Killebrew suffered a “significant” non-contact knee injury as he planted on the turf.
“Honestly, it was s—,” Steelers defensive captain and NFLPA team representative Cameron Heyward said Tuesday. “I lost one of my teammates and kind of makes me sad about it.”
Heyward said he still prefers a grass playing surface to turf, which has drawn scrutiny at stadiums like New York’s MetLife for high-profile injuries. But Heyward added Sunday’s field was below standard.
The league has stated that there was no difference in injury rates between synthetic turf and grass playing surfaces last season. There were also fewer ACL injuries last season on synthetic than grass surfaces and there has been no difference so far this year.
“I like grass, but that wasn’t grass for playing,” Heyward said.
An NFLPA source echoed Heyward’s sentiments about preferring grass to turf playing surfaces, but stressed that the quality of the grass matters.
“Players prefer grass fields, but all grass surfaces aren’t equal,” the source told ESPN. “The conditions at Acrisure Stadium underscore why players have pushed for high-quality grass fields, and why the NFLPA continues to push for improved, shared maintenance practices of grass fields across the league.”
The Steelers share a stadium with the University of Pittsburgh, but neither team had played at Acrisure the week before Sunday’s game. Pitt hosted Boston College on Oct. 4, while the Steelers lone home game prior to the Browns game was against the Seattle Seahawks on Sept. 14.
While the Steelers had just one home game in that stretch, Pitt hosted four of their first five games at Acrisure. Juggling the wear-and-tear of the field between two teams is nothing new at the field, but typically, conditions have worsened much later in the season before a re-sodding.
“Players deserve to have the safest and highest-quality places of work,” the NFLPA source said. “The NFLPA is advocating to establish better league-wide standards and pushing the NFL for more surface-specific data in order to ensure that our members are playing on the best possible field surfaces, no matter if it’s grass or turf.”
