FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2023
National Football League fans called out the paint job on the field at MetLife Stadium on Sept. 24, which got progressively messier as the New York Jets took on the New England Patriots in their Week 3 matchup.
Photos shared on social media showed white footprints over the endzone and midfield.
Taking the rainy weather into account, several reports indicated that these are not a common occurrence in NFL end zones. In fact, white footprints were spotted in the team’s endzone prior to kickoff and even before warmups, presumably from whoever painted the logo.
However, according to Larry Brown Sports, there did not seem to be any impacts with footing or traction, but some players ended up wearing a lot of white paint.
One X user joked that Patriots’ guard Cole Strange was “wearing half of the paint from the Jets logo at MetLife,” with the image depicting Cole’s helmet, gloves and jersey splattered with green and white paint.
“Now because of some lazy field manager in Jersey, Zach Wilson is 100000% going to get crushed for a safety in the end zone and leave behind a chalk outline that looks like a murder scene just occurred,” said one Barstool Sports writer.
Of course, some football fans also took the opportunity to joke about the prints in the Jets’ endzone, saying that probably would not be any players in the end zone during the game, anyway.
Update: pic.twitter.com/FxMc8Dypso
— Zack Cox (@ZackCoxNESN) September 24, 2023
Other Turf Issues
MetLife Stadium’s field turf has been the subject over several complaints and injuries over the past years, with some stats reportedly showing that it was “one of the worst fields in the league.”
As a result, earlier this year, a new FieldTurf core system was installed, with players describing the field appeared to offer a “softer, more forgiving feel” than the previous synthetic turf.
The system reportedly offers a multilayer dual-polymer monofilament fiber. MetLife Stadium CEO Ron VanDeVeen called it “one of the premier surfaces in the league,” after it was installed back in March.
However, Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers himself was injured against the Buffalo Bills in his season debut game with the team. Jets Coach Robert Saleh explained at a press conference that he didn’t see the surfaces as being an issue regarding the ankle injury—one that might be season-ending.
The NFL Players Association, alternatively, issued a statement afterwards saying that NFL players “overwhelmingly prefer it and the data is clear that grass is simply safer than artificial turf.” Executive Director Lloyd Howell added that the issue “has been near the top of the players’ list during my team visits and one I have raised with the NFL.”
Howell said in his statement they know there is an investment to making such a change. But he said there’s a bigger cost to the NFL if the league keeps losing its best players to “unnecessary injuries.”
Rodgers himself also previously argued for grass, while with the Green Bay Packers, saying that some artificial surfaces are softer, creating more wobble when the foot hits the ground.
“It’s that wobble that can cause some of these non-contact knee injuries that we’ve seen,” Rodgers said at the time. “I’m not sure if that’s the standard that’s set for that type of surface or it’s the installation of that surface, but a lot of that could be just done away with if we had grass in every stadium.”
Tagged categories: Coating failure; Coating Materials - Commercial; Good Technical Practice; Paint; Paint defects; Program/Project Management; Quality control; Quality Control; Stadiums/Sports Facilities
