No one hit New England Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker when he blew out his knee on Sunday. But that doesn’t mean the Patriots think the Texans are blameless.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick blames Welker’s torn ACL and MCL on the turf at Reliant Stadium.
“The turf down there is terrible,” Belichick said on WEEI. “It’s terrible. It’s just inconsistent. It’s all the little trays of grass and some of them are soft and some of them are firm and they don’t all fit well together, those seams . . . some of it feels like a sponge, some of it feels real firm and hard like the Miami surface. One step you’re on one, the other step you’re on another. I really think it’s one of the worst fields I’ve seen.”
Belichick said he thinks the league needs to demand safe playing surfaces in every stadium.
“For the level of play we have in the National Football League, I think consistency on the field would be priority No. 1,” Belichick said. “We talk about players’ safety, about hits and all that and that’s certainly an area that should always be addressed. There’s nothing more important than player safety. To me, player safety starts on the surface that we play on.”
Belichick said he was concerned about the quality of the field even before the game.
“I walked out there,” Belichick said, “and I thought it was terrible.”