The data is in and the Sodfather should be locked up! The Eagles had a defensive player slip on more than a third of Patrick Mahomes’ dropbacks compared to 14% of Jalen Hurts’ –

We’re from Philly. We don’t make excuses. Both teams played on the same field. Blah. Blah. Blah. It’s all there. Black and white. Clear as crystal. The field affected the Eagles more on defense than it did the Chiefs. I’ll go to my grave knowing the Sodfather was the reason the Chiefs were better prepared for the field. When the heads groundskeeper for the Super Bowl is a lifelong Chiefs fan with two Super Bowl rings and the team provides his family with season tickets, you’ve left me no choice. The Eagles were dominant on the edge all season using the speed rush. The Chiefs got to the QB through the interior and rushed more through the pocket. Nobody could get around the edge all night. Look at Haason Reddick and Josh Sweat both beat their man and fall to the ground without being touched:

If Josh Sweat doesn’t slip it’s 3rd and long instead of a 20 yard catch from Travis Kelce that led to a touchdown on the opening drive.

So why was it so slippery? This is the best answer I’ve seen, from a CEO at Sod Solutions, a competitor of West Coast Turf, who was in charge of the growing the Super Bowl field via ABC 15:

Tobey Wagner, the CEO for Sod Solutions and a direct competitor of West Coast Turf, defended the grass-growing company and grass itself.

“The natural color of Bermudagrass during the winter would be brown,” Wagner says. “They had to put ryegrass in this mix to make it have that beautiful color.”

Wagner says there was likely too much ryegrass, which holds more water. When the cleats break up the grass, water is released, which led to slipping.

Too much ryegrass. Now who would know there was too much ryegrass? Probably the heads groundskeeper with two Chiefs Super Bowl rings.


https://twitter.com/kylepaganCB/status/1625531831687823360?s=20&t=lQ9426dR2uS1WZidy79SsA