Injuries haven’t gone down with newer turf, the Giants/Jets stadium got new turf at the beginning of the seasons and there’s been tons of injuries because of it. Grass is safer that’s what the Steelers players want it, also the Heinz Field grass has been fine ever since they ditched that dumb sand base system years ago.
OT - The Pittsburgh Bowl
- Thread starter Warchtorch
- Start date
A Driving Distance Bowl at PNC Park with a MAC East team vs. an AAC Northeast team(Temple, Navy, ECU, or Cincy) with Army as a secondary tie in might work.
I think turf should be mandatory for all Western PA high schools. They don't have the time/money/know how to properly maintain a grass field with the proper drainage & growing conditions to prevent a huge mud pit by mid-late October.
In Ed Bouchette's mailbag article on the Athletic this week someone actually asked him about turf at Heinz Field. The first sentence of his response says it all.
"I believe you’d find the players enjoy the real grass at Heinz Field more than any artificial surface in the NFL."
Unless and until that ever changes, there is no chance at all that they will put turf in at Heinz. The players hate it. Today's turf is better, but there are still more injuries on it than on grass. Guys feel worse longer after playing games on turf than grass. It's a fantasy of some fans, for some reason. It isn't going to happen.
Stadiums in cold weather cities with retractable roofs. The NFL neither wants nor needs real football fans at the game. It is for corporate sponsors and fat cats who don’t want to get cold, rained on or snowed on.
NFL rewards some teams with Super Bowls after getting a new stadium as long as they are capable of hosting a Super Bowl. With that said, I don't look for Detroit, Indy, or Minneapolis to host another Super Bowl for a long time. Too many good options with Miami, New Orleans, Tampa, Arizona, LA, and Vegas.
PNC Park would be a great spot to host an annual Bowl Game.. I can almost see our dopey mayor flipping the coin at the inaugural game.
Not sure if this is what you are thinking of, but I recall a while back the Army/Navy game's contract to play in Philadelphia was up and they were looking at new options for where to play. Pittsburgh was in contention, but the Rooney's came out against it due to concerns over the state of the turf if too many games were played on the field. I'm assuming they didn't like that the game is played after the annual post-WPIAL playoffs re-sodding of Heinz.
That's very interesting that the players now feel that way. I'm pretty sure there was a time in Heinz Field's early years where the NFL players voted the playing surface there as either the worst or second to worst in the league. Steelers/SEA/whoever is in charge of the stadium must have made some serious improvements if players feel that way now, considering that about half the league has an artificial surface and we must have jumped those teams.
Yes, when the stadium first opened they used sand as a base which was a disaster, they then switched to what they have now which includes re-sodding late in the season after WPIAL Playoffs.
The Steelers switched to the hybrid surface (DD Grassmasters) and then back to an all-natural surface before completely redoing the field in 2017. The Steelers still favored the "worst grass field in the NFL" over artificial surface. Always found this interesting as it seems the only people ever clamoring for FieldTurf are fans. I know I was disappointed when Michigan and Notre Dame switched from natural grass to plastic and rubber. Here are a few articles for a historical perspective.
March 2003 - https://archive.triblive.com/news/heinz-field-to-plant-grass-with-synthetic-base/
Steelers change to synthetic base (DD Grassmasters), but a mention of the players preferring natural grass.
November 2007 - https://www.post-gazette.com/sports...grass-to-artificial-turf/stories/200711290443
Steelers players still in favor of grass surface (including Heinz Field) over artificial. Interesting that this informal survey was taken after the perfect storm of sod placed over the old surface and a heavy rain against the Dolphins.
March 2009 - https://sturf.lib.msu.edu/article/2009mar31.pdf
Players rank Heinz Field as worst grass field in NFL.
September 2020 - https://nflpa.com/posts/only-natural-grass-can-level-the-nfls-playing-field
NFLPA advocates all teams switch to grass fields citing injury data from 2012-2018 as part of their argument.
There has never been a time, literally never, that the Stiller players were in favor of switching Heinz Field to turf.
They were, however, in favor of getting the grass right.
