Nailed It
When Beauty is Only Skin Deep
The NHL’s popular Stadium Series, that sees outdoor gameplay, makes a much-ballyhooed pitstop in Raleigh this Saturday when the Carolina Hurricanes will host the Washington Capitals. By all accounts, the icy rink will be just as slick as the pretty turf at this past Sunday’s Super Bowl. While Patrick Mahomes and his Chiefs surged and escaped in the second half with a wimpy conclusion and the Lombardi trophy, the buzzy undercurrent pulsing from Glendale has been busy. Much of it trained primarily on the unmitigated disaster that was the field of play. Seen with the naked eye, the only thing missing from Sunday night’s field was an overhead water fountain and an industrial-sized barrel of sudsy dishwashing detergent. Present throughout were players of all stripes slip-sliding away for 60 non-contiguous minutes. Smelly piles of soiled, spent cleats with increasingly-aggressive spikes unworthy of gaining traction gathered on both sidelines as the camera-ready grass posed for a night-long selfie with comical virality. A seemingly minor, last-minute logistical change at State Farm is now implicated in the unfolding drama. The NFL is famous for leaving no stone unturned in paving the way for its marquee event of the year. An undisturbed rock was just unearthed.
Developed at a cost of $800K over two years, the sod at State Farm is perhaps the most studied, scrutinized and manipulated grass in the history of Super Bowls. Technically known as Tahoma 31, the varietal of grass specially chosen for the NFL’s big night was developed in close coordination with the US Golf Association and is indeed hearty and worthy enough for golf-sanctioned fairways and playing surfaces. With a deep, consistent and satisfying sparkling emerald shade, it certainly looks the part. Tahoma 31 is a blend of China/African Bermuda and rye grass, a hybrid poked and prodded into stardom at vaunted Oklahoma State University. Tahoma’s superior resistance to cold weather, disease and wear are among its chief attributes. Its drought tolerance and recovery from traffic only added to Tahoma’s appeal as the ideal turf for Super Bowl LVII .
And so, ribbons of Tahoma 31 were lovingly cultivated about an hour’s drive from State Farm on the dusty outskirts of Scottsdale, within eyeshot of Camelback mountain. Tenderly manicured, watered and generally fussed-over, no detail was too small nor obstacle too much of an impediment. The grass grew happily and in abundance, reaching for the warm sunshine. Five weeks ago, the field at the stadium (complete with yards of mere pedestrian Tifway 419 grass) was completely torn up. IN came 600 larger-than-life giant spools of emerald Tahoma 31 sod, each measuring 40 feet by 3.5 feet and tipping the scales at 1600 pounds. State Farm has a so-called trundled tray field where the field can slide outdoors for watering and to soak in the abundant Arizona sunshine. The Tahoma 31 rolls where carefully unfurled by a team of 30 caregivers, stitched together, laser-leveled and watered with the help of embedded moisture sensors. Closer to game-day, the painters arrived to spray computer-assisted field markings, decals, logos and endzones. Throughout, the field was trundled out during the day to be watered and refreshed with sunshine, then rolled back indoors to protect the grass from desert winter nighttime temperatures. Up until last week, the field was in great shape. So much so that the NFL promoted the surface, and its winding road to Glendale, to reporters during last week’s media preview as if it were a team unto itself.
The plan was for the field to be rolled out daily for its beauty treatment until game day. It was a carefully choreographed dance prescribed by caretakers and painstakingly tinkered-with to the nth degree. But what the NFL’s own turf operations team didn’t count on was the installation of special bleachers in the end zone designed to maximize capacity at the stadium. The bleachers immediately rendered the field immovable. And the sod’s daily outdoor regimen impossible. The turf’s caregivers were left with a conundrum. The sprinkler infrastructure remained outdoors which meant that manual watering indoors served as the imperfect tradeoff. Further, a decision was made to leave the stadium’s roof open so as to maximize field-level evaporation. The jury-rigged compromise didn’t quite work out as planned. The field simply didn’t have enough time to dry out — an issue that would have been a non-event had its daily journeys not been impeded by efforts at revenue grabbing. The moisture-laden sod paired with the unusually large field paint coverage to create an especially slippery playing surface. A surface even aggressively gauged spikes could do little to tame. Sunday’s NFL version of a Wham-O Slip and Slide at-scale resulted.
I suppose the only good news to be born of this “NFL learning opportunity” is that the hideous state of affairs affected both teams in equal measure. And that no one was seriously injured. Which doesn’t quite make things right of course. The disharmony kinda lands perfectly on-brand for the NFL in this sense. That despite a nearly $1M budget, a bespoke hybrid grass good enough for golf, an army of highly-trained field specialists at the League’s disposal and over two years to nail it, the NFL whiffs a pick — to sell more tickets. It’s comical if it weren’t so tragic. That people are poking fun at the grass in the same breath as they extol Patrick Mahomes as the new Tom Brady is to be considered a failure of epic proportions. Next year’s Super Bowl will be held in Las Vegas at Allegiant Stadium, a venue with an identical trundled field setup to that of State Farm. Here’s to hoping the NFL will have figured out how to grow and properly maintain grass by then. And to resist its own overgrown bad habits.
