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LAS VEGAS – For each of the first 57 Super Bowls, the NFL hired George Toma to prepare the field. That tenure earned him the nicknames “Shitty Father” and “The Lawn God.”
But his last job was not the best. Players from both the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles fell constantly during Super Bowl LVII at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, and members of each team criticized the playing surface afterward.
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Toma shared his sentiment, but blamed the NFL. He claimed then-NFL field director Ed Mangan sanded the field too late and overwatered it without letting it dry properly before installing it the Wednesday before the game.
“He didn’t take care of that.” Toma told ESPN last year.. “He didn’t listen to anyone.”
Toma, 95, retired last year, so Super Bowl LVIII between the Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas will be the first without his participation. The NFL also replaced Mangan as field director and hired Nick Pappas last March to prepare the playing surface. That task always comes with a lot of pressure, but this year there is a higher level of scrutiny considering what happened last year.
Like State Farm Stadium, Allegiant Stadium is a domed stadium that uses a tray field that allows the Raiders to play on natural grass. Using an artificial grass field would be more convenient, but owner Mark Davis insisted on natural grass because that’s what most NFL players prefer. On Wednesday, the NFLPA revealed that it surveyed about 1,700 players to ask them if they preferred to play on grass or artificial turf.
“Ninety-two percent prefer to play on high-quality turf,” said NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell. “If we look over a period of time at the injury rates, lower extremity and soft tissue, most grass fields, (they have) a lower injury rate.”
But the NFL rejected that idea. NFL Executive Vice President of Health and Safety Jeff Miller stated Wednesday that there was a negligible difference between injury rates on grass and turf fields in 2023.
“In 2023, the differential injury rate between synthetic fields and natural fields was 0.001 per 1,000 plays,” Miller said. “There are grass fields that have lower injury rates than synthetic fields and there are synthetic fields that have lower injury rates than grass fields. We believe that through much of the work that Nick is doing and our researchers, we can reduce those numbers in both. “We want more consistent fields, we want players to have better experiences on the field and we want to get rid of as many injuries as we can.”
Pappas and his landscaping crew were in Las Vegas this week with “The Beast.” a field testing machine that replicates the forces that players generate with their cleats.
“The forces this unit generates are representative of the NFL athlete,” Pappas said. “And you can actually test the interaction between the cleat and the surface when a cleat sinks into the ground and whether it performs a rotational spin or a translational slide. “So, we’re tracking that and looking at it to get an idea of how the natural grass surface is performing.”
The grass for this year’s Super Bowl was grown at a grass farm in Northern California before being transported to Las Vegas.
“Nick Pappas was visiting the sod farm even while the grass was growing to make sure he saw it from a very young age, took care of it and appreciated how that surface will perform,” Miller said. “And so when we finally move him and get him on the Super Bowl schedule, he knows what needs to be done to make sure that the top dressing is handled, that he understands how it’s going to work and that it’s given to him.” “enough time to mature and be ready for Sunday.”
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Pappas has been in Las Vegas for the past few weeks to prepare the field. He was recently installed in the field tray outside of Allegiant Stadium, allowing him to receive direct sunlight. It rained heavily in Las Vegas from Sunday through Tuesday, so the field had to be properly dried before being moved to Allegiant Stadium on Tuesday for rehearsals for the pregame and halftime shows.
The field tray was rolled outside on Tuesday night so that it would again be exposed to direct sunlight on Wednesday. On Thursday, the layup returned for good to Allegiant Stadium.
“The rain the last few days has affected how they decided to treat it,” Miller said. “Obviously they want to be careful with halftime rehearsals and stuff to make sure they have time to repair the field after people have been running around to make it work as well as possible.”
When asked if the earlier rain was a cause for concern, Miller didn’t seem worried.
“We have a lot of confidence in the field managers. Traditionally, rain is good for grass. It may be anomalous for people who live in Las Vegas, but for the rest of the world, rain is good for things that grow. This is something that our field director will take into account in preparation.
After the field goal layup was placed Thursday, it passed every NFL barometer before being covered with a tarp. Ultimately, though, that’s not what matters. It will all depend on how he performs on Sunday.
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(Photo: Matt York / Associated Press)