The NFL and Washington are saying all the right things regarding the playing surface that looked all sorts of wrong on Thursday night. The NFL Players Association will be exploring the situation.
The union “will take a look at the matter,” a source familiar with the situation told the Washington Post.
“That turf has been an issue off and on for some time,” the unnamed source told the Post.
The NFL believes the field is and was fine. “NFL Football Operations personnel at the game observed no issues with the quality of the field, and we have received no complaints about the surface, either yesterday or today” NFL spokesman Michael Signora told the Post.
Team spokesman Tony Wyllie also defended the playing surface. “Our field was in good condition last night, although a recent freeze made the Bermuda grass turn brown between the numbers,” Wyllie said.
Of course, a recent freeze doesn’t explain quarterback Kirk Cousins’ foot getting stuck in the turf in the instant before he threw a pass that was intercepted and returned for a touchdown, tying the game at 10 in the second half.
The failure of all teams to have high-quality playing surfaces continues to be one of the biggest oddities of the NFL, where billions in revenue are generated but yet not nearly enough is devoted to making every field look and play like Lambeau Field. Even if the owners don’t care about the players as human beings, the owners should care about them as the multi-million-dollar investments they are.
And while artificial playing surfaces have their share of flaws, FieldTurf is always better than a crappy grass field -- especially when the grass field is so crappy that it can’t even stay green.