PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It’s still lingering in the thoughts of the Steelers players just how bad the Acrisure Stadium turf was on Sunday.
After the game against Cleveland, quarterback Aaron Rodgers brought it up in his postgame news conference saying it’s normally not until November or December that it would be in this type of condition. Mike Tomlin was asked about it during his weekly news conference Monday and said he thought it was ‘poor’.
When Cam Heyward was asked about it as the NFL Players Association representative, he didn’t need time to think about it or even edit himself.
“Honestly, it was (crap),” Heyward said bluntly. “I lost one of my teammates and it kind of makes me sad about it.”
Heyward is talking about special teams captain Miles Killebrew suffering a significant knee injury during the game Sunday, which hasn’t directly been blamed on the field, however it seems fairly obvious that it was.
It’s not that the Steelers captain wants to see artificial turf on the home field.
“I like grass, but that wasn’t grass we played on,” Heyward said.
Tomlin said he is not concerned going forward. They started ripping up the turf at Acrisure Stadium right after the game against Cleveland and will replace it with new sod. The Pitt Panthers will be the first to use the new field on October 25 followed by the Steelers hosting Green Bay on Sunday Night October 26.
As the local head of the players union, with himself and several teammates concerned about the conditions, what can he do?
“I can’t do anything,” Heyward said. “I’m not a landscaper. I’m not going to act like I am, but hopefully it’s handled by the next time we play.”
It’s the worst the field has been in a long time. Much like a team with a tough start, eyes will be on the Acrisure Stadium grounds crew to correct a surface that wasn’t good enough Sunday.