The 2022 season ended at State Farm Stadium, on an embarrassing slip-n-slide surface. This past weekend, the first game of the year at State Farm Stadium featured a field that didn’t look great.
Jeremy Cluff of the Arizona Republic posted an item collecting the various criticisms of the field, which was already worn brown down the middle, because the Cardinals conduct their training-camp practices on the same turf where they play their home games. (Tell me you’re cheap without telling me you’re cheap.)
Despite complaints from some in the media and images that were not a good look for the home team, we’ve seen no complaints in the aftermath of the game.
“They had trouble with the Super Bowl there,” Broncos coach Sean Payton told reporters in advance of the game. “I don’t know if it’s the same field. I know they practice there all during training camp. My experience with that field is that it has always been a fast and firm track. It may not always be green because they are getting so much work on it, but it’s always been a good, firm surface that you can run on. We’ll pay attention to it when we get there. If we have to change what we are wearing, then that is part of the deal.”
So maybe it performed OK, even if it didn’t look OK.
Ideally, all NFL fields would perform well and look like they are capable of doing so.
