The 2023 Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles was a game for the ages. With the Chiefs pulling off a 38-35 victory in a thrilling come-from-behind win, one of the biggest stories to come out of the game was the field conditions.
The grass field was grown for two years in advance of the game at a local sod farm in Phoenix and installed two weeks before the game. All at a cost of $800,000. Unfortunately, the field conditions were not up to par, leading to slipping and sliding on routes, cutbacks, and kickoffs.
Social media lit up with criticism of the field conditions, with Fox analyst Mark Schlereth calling it “absolute trash” and “the NFL should be absolutely embarrassed.” Former Giants lineman Marshall Newhouse chimed in that “Arizona’s field being sh—y is the most obvious thing to players but not known collectively. It’s CONSISTENTLY a slick and unstable turf for being grass.”
With the field conditions being so bad, players were changing cleats at halftime in order to try to get better traction. Eagles defensive end Haason Reddick, who spent the first four years of his career in Arizona, said it was “the worst field I ever played on.”
The Chiefs also had complaints about the field. Pass rusher Frank Clark said “the field was kind of terrible. It looked like they laid strips down or something like that to cover up what they had before. We’ve had this problem in Arizona before.”
Even Eagles coach Nick Sirianni had something to say about the field conditions. “We all had to figure out our shoes. You do your best to figure out the playing surface as soon as you possibly can, sometimes you have to change cleats in the middle of the game. Same way as if you had to change a game plan or a play.”
The NFL should be ashamed for this joke of a field for the SUPER BOWL. pic.twitter.com/GgnyYc09M4
— Michael Hurley (@michaelFhurley) February 13, 2023
