Dolphins-Steelers

[Luigi74]

I hate to burst everybody's bubble but the Rooneys are too damn cheap to get the field turf surface

The Rooney's are not cheap it cost's them more to re-sod every other year.

[Gothamite]

they should keep it grass. its football, your supposed to play in any conditions. i've played on field turf for the first time last week and i hate it, epically the little rubbers getting in your shoes.

But (poor English aside), the game was torn up at the beginning. Four or five high school games on Friday plus a college game on Saturday leaves the field nothing more than marshland on Monday night.

There's the answer - don't schedule so many events before a home game.

No turf in an outdoor stadium. Period. Even this field, bad as it was, is preferable to an artificial surface.

[DrBear]

I got a kick out of all the Dolphins fans griping in the ESPN comments. Haven't they forgotten back in 82 when they won a playoff game (against the Jets, I believe) by "forgetting" the tarp at the Orange Bowl during a monsoon?

[ABCJr]

Here's what makes me laugh:

This is from week three in 2004 after a hurricane hit in Miami. This was also Roethlisberger's first start.

If I remember correctly, the field still had the baseball infield making it even worse. The fins fans have nothing to complain about.

[Luigi74]

they should keep it grass. its football, your supposed to play in any conditions. i've played on field turf for the first time last week and i hate it, epically the little rubbers getting in your shoes.

But (poor English aside), the game was torn up at the beginning. Four or five high school games on Friday plus a college game on Saturday leaves the field nothing more than marshland on Monday night.

There's the answer - don't schedule so many events before a home game.

No turf in an outdoor stadium. Period. Even this field, bad as it was, is preferable to an artificial surface.

How about the NFL and Big East don't schedule home games for the Steelers and Pitt the weekend after Thanksgiving, since that is when the W.P.I.A.L. finals always are.

[Mac the Knife]

How about the NFL and Big East don't schedule home games for the Steelers and Pitt the weekend after Thanksgiving, since that is when the W.P.I.A.L. finals always are.

Yeah, because we all know the stadium was built with the WPIAL as their top priority...

The Steelers lease calls for the team and Pitt to share the costs involved in maintaining the actual field, so it might be interesting to see what transpires here. Pitt might balk at it. After all, they're usually knocked out of any chance at a bowl game by the time the field gets that bad...

ZING!

[FiddySicks]

Ok, I said this in a previous thread, but did anyone catch that punt in the sceond half (I think it was around the end of the third quarter) where the ball came down and STUCK to the field? It didn't move an inch. Thats crazy.

[TFoA]

Ok, I said this in a previous thread, but did anyone catch that punt in the sceond half (I think it was around the end of the third quarter) where the ball came down and STUCK to the field? It didn't move an inch. Thats crazy.

That's when I said "This is officially 1930s football. Nobody's going to score, if someone kicks a FG in that grass it's a miracle. It's gonna be 0-0."

But then, Pittsburgh's kicker kicked what is to me one of the best kicks ever in horrible conditions.

That being said, it's time for them to invest in FieldTurf. The turf would've held up very nicely, even if they had the HS games, the college game, and the pro game all in a span of 4 days. It's happened here at the Georgia Dome, with HS games being played all weekend and then a Falcons game on Sunday, or the SECCG and then a Falcons game, and the fieldturf held up very well. So yeah, I say fieldturf is the way to go.

My comment on Astroturf is this: It sucks. Felt like I was playing on concrete when I played on it. It's good for throwing and catching, but when you have to get smacked down onto it...ouch.

[rams80]

How about the NFL and Big East don't schedule home games for the Steelers and Pitt the weekend after Thanksgiving, since that is when the W.P.I.A.L. finals always are.

Yeah, because we all know the stadium was built with the WPIAL as their top priority...

The Steelers lease calls for the team and Pitt to share the costs involved in maintaining the actual field, so it might be interesting to see what transpires here. Pitt might balk at it. After all, they're usually knocked out of any chance at a bowl game by the time the field gets that bad...

ZING!

Oh they'll become relevant again when they fire the Wannstache.

Wait...why does he still have a job there?

[Sguse1]

ummmm this is FOOTBALL. Field Turf has no business being in an outdoor stadium. IMO. Thats why you are playing outdoors. ANYTHING can happen. Field Turf should only be in Domed stadiums. If you dont like that the conditions were poor ruining your fantasy team then you obviously arent tooo much of a fan of the NFL.

[rams80]

ummmm this is FOOTBALL. Field Turf has no business being in an outdoor stadium. IMO. Thats why you are playing outdoors. ANYTHING can happen. Field Turf should only be in Domed stadiums. If you dont like that the conditions were poor ruining your fantasy team then you obviously arent tooo much of a fan of the NFL.

I don't like seeing my team's million dollar investments blowing out their knees or tearing something because some purists desire grass fields as well.

Get the field turf.

[Sguse1]

Thats football man like it or not.

[cranium]

ummmm this is FOOTBALL. Field Turf has no business being in an outdoor stadium. IMO. Thats why you are playing outdoors. ANYTHING can happen. Field Turf should only be in Domed stadiums. If you dont like that the conditions were poor ruining your fantasy team then you obviously arent tooo much of a fan of the NFL.

I do love the NFL and have money riding my fantasy teams, so it really hurts to see game end 3-0. Regardless, if they are going to be using the field that much over any one weekend, they should consider Fieldturf. Under normal seasonal conditions, the natural grass field still would have been crappy. And sod on top of sod is nuts.

[Gothamite]

I don't like seeing my team's million dollar investments blowing out their knees or tearing something because some purists desire grass fields as well.

Shall we eliminate all contact from the game as well?

Football is a sport played by men, not boys.

[Sguse1]

Since when has football ever meant to be played in optimal conditions? Did i miss something over the last 100 years? I mean football is played in the fall and early winter. OH MY theyre playing in Mud,rain and Snow. this surely cant happen...

[rams80]

I don't like seeing my team's million dollar investments blowing out their knees or tearing something because some purists desire grass fields as well.

Shall we eliminate all contact from the game as well?

Football is a sport played by men, not boys.

If the injury would be avoidable through a little effort in regards to the playing field, then the little effort needs to be made. The NFL should have made use of the opportunity given to them when they forced the Patriots to adopt the system to mandate it throughout the league.

It certainly should be used in stadia that experience the kind of use that Heinz Field does.

I don't know about you, but I grew rather sick of seeing the phrase "turf toe" in Ram injury reports during the final years of astroturf at the Edward Jones Dome.

[Saturn]

ummmm this is FOOTBALL. Field Turf has no business being in an outdoor stadium. IMO. Thats why you are playing outdoors. ANYTHING can happen. Field Turf should only be in Domed stadiums. If you dont like that the conditions were poor ruining your fantasy team then you obviously arent tooo much of a fan of the NFL.

I agree completely. That and I absolutely can't stand artificial grass.

[RedRenesis]

The Steelers had actually announced on Sunday that they are looking to get Field Turf for next season. Probably going with the new system they installed in West Virginia

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07329/836557-66.stm

Steelers interested in WVU field surface for Heinz Field

The Steelers are investigating artificial surfaces and it appears they might install one at Heinz Field before the start of the 2008 season.

They acknowledged the surface on their field was not good enough when they covered it with new sod this weekend for tomorrow night's game. Now they are looking to take the next step and put something down permanently.

They have been particularly interested in the new surface West Virginia University has this year. WVU installed a new generation of Field Turf this summer called Duraspine at the cost of $901,152. The Steelers sent some of their people to WVU to take a look at the turf there.

The Steelers have practiced on a different version of Field Turf at their indoor facility since 2000, as has Pitt. The Panthers added an artificial turf called Sportexe on one of their outdoor practice fields next to the Steelers this year.

Pitt also has been urging the Steelers to install an artificial turf. Imagine trying to recruit quarterbacks, wide receivers and running backs and showing them in November or December the kind of surface on which they will play their home games. It can only be a recruiting disadvantage.

"In partnering with Sportexe, we were able to make our outstanding practice facility even greater with the installation of a cutting-edge synthetic turf surface," said former Pitt athletic director Jeff Long at the time the new turf was installed.

If they're bragging about it helping their practices, imagine what an artificial turf can do for games!

[nybatt]

How did this amazing league and sport exist before 1966 and the introduction of fake fields??

Is it forgotten that bad weather and field conditions are many times the "great equalizer" for sub-par teams?? Do the Dolphins play to a 3-0 loss in the rain on a fake field??

Maybe in the future the multi-million dollar "investments", I mean football players, will complain when it rains. Maybe a wet fake field will cause players to slip. Perhaps games will be cancelled for optimal playing weather so there are no fumbled snaps or exchanges.

Is there a future of domed stadia in all cities that have winter/inclement weather?

what a joke!

[rams80]

How did this amazing league and sport exist before 1966 and the introduction of fake fields??

Is it forgotten that bad weather and field conditions are many times the "great equalizer" for sub-par teams?? Do the Dolphins play to a 3-0 loss in the rain on a fake field??

Maybe in the future the multi-million dollar "investments", I mean football players, will complain when it rains. Maybe a wet fake field will cause players to slip. Perhaps games will be cancelled for optimal playing weather so there are no fumbled snaps or exchanges.

Is there a future of domed stadia in all cities that have winter/inclement weather?

what a joke!

Point of clarification. I am a fan of a team that plays indoors on field turf, and is designed to have optimal performance on such a playing surface. It is in my interest to see that surface introduced league-wide.

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That said, once the professionals began to command this level of salary, it became within the rights of the owners, and the fans who invest their money in the teams, to ensure that avoidable injuries through shoddy playing surfaces should be avoided.

In Star Wars terms, it's like investing the resources to build a battle station the size of a moon, and then forgetting to put a flippin' armor plate on an small hole (out of a sense of fair play, or laziness, or "that's how we built things in the past".) Then you look really stupid when some hick farm boy blows up that station with a refurbished space fighter that cost a trillionth of the station and the help of said hole.

Or in naval terms....It's like investing thousands of English pounds in a modern battle cruiser, and then not ensuring the correct and safe number of charges were exposed in the magazine, because you need a high rate of fire like you had in the past. Then you get hit by a cheap German shell and your investment goes kerplooie.