Patriots rip out grass at Gillette, installing FieldTurfAssociated Press FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- The New England Patriots began installing a synthetic field surface Tuesday to be used in time for their next home game Nov. 26 against Chicago. Heavy equipment scraped the grass and leveled the dirt beneath it in preparation for the installation of FieldTurf, which has become increasingly popular around the NFL. Gillette Stadium has had natural grass since it opened in 2002. It's the second time in less than three weeks that the field has been worked on following complaints from Patriots players and opponents about the lack of grass and surplus of sand up the middle of the field for the first three home games. The middle third of the field was resodded from goal line to goal line in time for the game against Indianapolis on Nov. 5. The Patriots played at Gillette Stadium again a week later against the New York Jets. New England lost both games. Heavy rains before last Sunday's game with the Jets and occasional drizzle during it left much of the center strip of the field muddy. Before that strip was replaced last month, Patriots spokesman Stacey James said, "We're committed to improve the field and considering all options short and long term." FieldTurf is a synthetic substance with long green fibers. It has sand for stability and small rubber chips for softness added to it. The Kraft family, owner of the Patriots and Gillette Stadium, opened the field as a multipurpose venue. The New England Revolution of MLS play their home games there. It also has been the site this summer of concerts by Kenny Chesney, Bon Jovi and the Rolling Stones. The Patriots have natural grass on their two practice fields and FieldTurf on their indoor practice field, all adjacent to Gillette Stadium.
NFL has a rule that you're not allowed to change playing surfaces in the middle of the season. I guess they waived that rule out of neccesity here.
Read something on that today. Apparently they talked about making it a rule, but never actually finalized it.
There wasn't a rule in place in 2002. The Cowboys hosted Tennessee on 9-15-02. They played on Sportfield Turf ("painted concrete"). After the game they installed a new surface. On October 6, 2002 the Cowboys hosted the Giants. The teams played on Sportfield Realgrass ("grassy turf").
I found that so interesting that I went onto getty images to look at pictures from both games, and sure enough, take a look at the surface: 9/15: 10/6:
I've long referred to the old style AstroTurf as painted concrete. Or rugs. It's like going out in the street and putting a throw rug on the ground and playing football on it. The worst injury I ever saw in football came on 10-10-93 at Veterans Stadium*. Wendell Davis was a Bears wide receiver and a pretty good one. At one point in the game he was running a post route, if memory serves (I have not seen this play since probably a day or two after the game). He jumped to try to make the catch. His feet stuck to the turf for a moment. When he went airborne both his knees exploded. As he fell to the turf both of his legs appeared to be gelatinized. Davis never played again. The injury would never have happened on grass. (Note: if you go to www.pro-football-reference.com to look up Davis' stats you will see a 1998 entry after the 1988-93 entries. That is a mistake. The Wendell Davis who played tight end for the Chargers in 1998 is a different player.) *the Joe Theismann, Napoleon McCallum, and Clinton Portis injuries were easier to watch than the Davis injury ____ http://www.usatoday.com/sports/2003-06-24-knee-injury-list_x.htm
I tried the same thing a few months ago with no luck, of course. When doing an internet search for info, look what popped up. A post from this website! http://forums.theganggreen.com/showthread.php?p=334942#post334942 Yeah, so I remembered correctly. It was a post route. The Bears were wearing black jerseys that day. I seem to recall Bubby Brister started for the Eagles at QB. That was the week after the Jets had that horrible defeat to the Eagles 35-30.
Football was made to be played on the grass, and if you are lucky, in the mud. :up: All this artificial grass and surface crap is BS.
