Heinz Field is routinely voted one of the worst surfaces in the NFL and for good reason: it hosts eight NFL regular season games, five or six college games, and the high school state finals. That's a lot of traffic for a (mostly) grass surface in the northern part of the country.
Every year the complaints on the playing conditions are promptly followed by the question: so, why not go to artificial turf? Steelers chairman Dan Rooney explains (again):
"Our No. 1 concern is the safety of our players," Rooney told the Tribune-Review on Friday. "We had the leading runner (Willie Parker) in the National Football League break his leg, and it had something to do with the (St. Louis) turf."Gene Upshaw, Executive director of the NFL Players Association, said the team should install turf because the players "do not like the field." Rooney's response: "he's got his information wrong."
One player who likes the current set up is wide receiver Hines Ward.
"As a player, I like grass. I don't want to go to turf. I played on turf for about three years in Three Rivers (Stadium), and it took me a couple of years to get over that."Ideally, the Steelers would be able to keep the grass surface at Heinz Field, but weather and usage have conspired against them. Either way, Rooney is expected to announce the team's playing-surface plans sometime next week.
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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. Keep the grass. It's called homefield advantage. If you want to keep the field in better condition, tell the University of Pittsburgh they will have to build a stadium for it's football team. Also, tell the highschool teams that play there they will have to find a new place to play.
Posted at 12:52PM on Feb 2nd 2008 by Pops
2. Pops, the whole reason the Steelers got money for a new field from the government was because it would be used for Pitt and the HS playoffs. I'm not sure the Steelers have much of a choice in this matter.
With that said, put new turf down before the HS playoffs and then take it off after that for the rest of the season. It doesn't get really bad until the highschool teams play about 86 games in 53 minutes on it.
Posted at 3:55PM on Feb 2nd 2008 by Dwayne
3. I'm with Pops on this one. Just about every other college team has there own field to play on, and its the Rooney's who want to share the field with the communities pertaining to high schools, (not government subsidies conditions). The Steelers organization owes a good field to the NFL and the players who play on it. They have had the worst field in the NFL since the Stadium was built and using a sand mixed base for grass is just plain crazy. Grass needs dirt for the roots, and little as possible wear and tear to become stable enough for lots of use. It's house and garden 101. You can't keep pulling and replacing turfs and expect solid conditions for playing tackle football on it.
Posted at 1:22PM on Feb 4th 2008 by Dave
4. It seems like the Steelers are in denial or something. Cincinnati, Baltimore and New England have already been though this and they don't have the same heavy usage as Heinz Field. They had to go to turf and so should the Steelers. It is obvious that the grass experiment won't work. The field is the worst in the NFL and certainly a risk for injury in itself not to mention a hindrence to better play. Players get hurt on grass too you know. It's football.
Posted at 3:08PM on Feb 5th 2008 by D.J.