Bears' shoddy turf for preseason opener draws criticism, even from Bears players
If Soldier Field is torn up by late December, it's at least understandable. Bad weather and a season's worth of Chicago Bears home games can tear up the grass. But the first preseason game of the year shouldn't be a problem.
The Bears had an embarrassing issue Saturday for their game against the Kansas City Chiefs. The turf was chewed up, even though it was just the first home game this preseason.
Jason Lieser of the Chicago Sun-Times drew attention to the condition of the turf before the game started:
This is not photoshop. This is what the field actually looks like today. pic.twitter.com/NCtRAJxYWK
— Jason Lieser (@JasonLieser) August 13, 2022
Players noticed, as did JC Tretter, the president of the NFLPA.
The NFL said that this field met minimum testing standards. We clearly need to re-evaluate what is an acceptable surface for players to compete on. We need new testing metrics looking at the performance and safety of every field. The NFL can and should do better. pic.twitter.com/Vh1NDgLQBk
— JC Tretter (@JCTretter) August 13, 2022
Soldier Field's turf has been an issue for years. There have been concerts there over the summer including Elton John on Aug. 5. That clearly didn't help the field.
Bears quarterback Justin Fields got acclimated to the poor field right away when he was a rookie last season.
"To be honest, last year I used our home field as an advantage because I knew how our grass was," Fields said, via Bleacher Report.
Bears kicker Cairo Santos said the field “was really sandy, which I expected," via NBC Sports. Santos said earlier this offseason that he finds public parks that don't have good grass and practices there, so he can prepare for the poor conditions at Soldier Field.
On Saturday, Santos again called out the unsafe conditions of the field.
Bears K Cairo Santos, to the Sun-Times:
“It’s reckless that we have...big-time players on both teams out there, and it’s too bad if the field becomes an issue where there’s an injury and that star is out for the season... It’s a reckless thing that they’re not taking care of it."— Jason Lieser (@JasonLieser) August 13, 2022
The Bears haven't fixed the problem despite years of poor conditions on the turf. And if the turf is already this bad in mid-August, how rough will it be by the end of the season?