Aaron Rodgers earned his first win in front of a Steelers crowd in Pittsburgh on Sunday as he helped take down the Browns, 23-9, to further cement his team's place atop the AFC North. Afterwards, however, the star quarterback made his feelings known on the subpar condition of the field at Acrisure Stadium.
The grass didn't appear to be in great shape from the very start of the broadcast with dead spots littering the ground. Matters got worse as the game went on. Steelers kicker Chris Boswell whiffed on a field goal because he slipped as he tried to plant his cleat in the turf for the kick, and top Pittsburgh special teamer Miles Killebrew had to leave the game with a non-contact knee injury in which he slid across the grass as he attempted to pivot for a tackle.
After the contest Rodgers ripped the field as "borderline unplayable," wondered if the condition of the grass contributed to Killebrew's injury, and then made an unfavorable comparison to how the field is tended at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.
"Thankfully [Boswell] took care of those kicks before the field got borderline unplayable," Rodgers said, per Nick Farabaugh of PennLive. "I just felt like it got real beat up. By the time the third quarter rolled around, that thing was really beat up, so I feel bad about what happened to Miles [Killebrew]. I’m not sure if, you know, there was any carry there. I know the field gets a lot of play.
"I don’t know why anybody wouldn’t wear a seven-studs cleats. Some guys are opposed to that and they just want to wear moldeds, but it reminds me a little bit of the field in Green Bay in the early years, but not until, like, November or early December where it would get kind of torn up a little bit. Then they went out and found an incredible, you know, field maintenance guy that would come over and help our guys out, and the field in Green Bay is absolutely immaculate, but the field today got pretty torn up."
The Steelers share the field with the University of Pittsburgh football team. However, the Pitt Panthers did not play at Acrisure Stadium on Saturday; they were out of town playing Florida State. So there doesn't seem to be an obvious reason as to why the field was in poor shape for the professional football game on Sunday.
Reports quickly emerged after the game that the field was being replaced. So Rodgers should theoretically be happier about the state of play in a few weeks when the Steelers host the Packers in their next home game on Octover 26.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Aaron Rodgers Ripped 'Unplayable' Steelers Home Field After Beating Browns.