The playing surface at Wembley Stadium in London wasn’t intended for American football and has often seen NFL players slipping and sliding on the field. But Calvin Johnson says the grass at Wembley is no worse than the grass at Soldier Field.
As Johnson prepares for Sunday’s game against the Chiefs in London, he says the field there isn’t worse than Soldier Field in Chicago, where the Lions play once a year and where players often complain that the grass is substandard.
“Not really worried about it,” Johnson said, via the Detroit Free Press. “I’ve probably played on worse fields. Played on the Chicagos of the world. They’re not really great, so not really worried about the field.”
Recognizing that soccer fields aren’t always conducive to playing American football, the NFL has arranged to have separate football and soccer playing surfaces installed in the new stadium that the league will share with English soccer team Tottenham Hotspur. But the league doesn’t always play on particularly good fields. That’s true both in London and in Chicago.