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The Turf Temperature in Tennessee Reached a Cleat-Melting 157 Degrees
By Matt Schultz
Published:
The FOX broadcast mentioned a few times how hot the field was during the Eagles/Titans game on Sunday, which, if I’m being honest, I thought was baby stuff.
“These are world-class athletes,” I thought to myself. “Just drink some water… they have all kinds of water on those benches… Not to mention Gatorade…. They have a lifetime supply of Gatorade at their disposal, and still they have the nads to complain? I’d kill for that much Gatorade… All the Gatorade you could even picture, they have it right there… Every color and flavor… Bet their Gatorade is ice-cold, too… Plus they got those big fans blowing on them… Tents… Shade… Et cetera… This is supposed to be the tough-guy sport, but here they are complaining… I’m supposed to feel bad because it’s too hot out for the rich super-athletes… Despite all that Gatorade they got back there… Gimme a break… Total baby stuff…”
Then I read Tim McManus’ ESPN piece on Monday explaining how the turf temperature on the field reached 157 degrees — which was so hot it was literally melting the cleats off of players’ feet — and I’d like to formally take back everything I said about their complaints being baby stuff:
Players’ cleats were melting and Eagles coach Nick Sirianni needed an IV because of extreme heat conditions at Nissan Stadium during Sunday’s game between Philadelphia and the Tennessee Titans, a 24-20 win for the Eagles.
The temperature on the turf reached 157 degrees Fahrenheit, per the television broadcast.
“I’ve never thought about how hot a stadium can be if it’s turf. [The heat] just sits there and bounces up into you,” Mailata said. “We’ve got to bring it up. This is why we want all grass fields, to create a standard of play in the league where we’re not putting players in dangerous positions if we don’t have to.”
Eagles offensive lineman Cam Jurgens noted postgame that his feet were “burning, still hurting.” Jurgens said he went through multiple pairs of cleats due to melting issues.
“Halftime was like a NASCAR pit crew helping me get ready for the second half,” he said. “That turf was just radiating.”
“It was one of the top five toughest games I’ve been a part of,” said Philadelphia tackle Lane Johnson , a 14-year veteran. “It was a mental test for everyone involved.”
That… sounds bad! And after reading through all that, I can’t help but wonder: how the hell is the NFL allowing their players to work in such dangerous conditions? What’s going on there? Doesn’t the NFL make tens of billions of dollars a year? Yet they can’t pony up and pay for real grass fields in every stadium?
I get that the NFL is a business and every business is going to cut corners if they can, but to skimp on safety to this degree? Doesn’t that sound like a bad idea? Aren’t the players the product? If you’re the NFL, wouldn’t you want these guys to stay as healthy as possible so the football remains at a high level? Or at the very least, you should want them to not die of heatstroke in the middle of a national broadcast, yes? Wouldn’t that be bad for ratings? Aren’t you incentivized to prevent the players’ feet from melting clean off their shin bones on FOX? The NFL doesn’t want that to happen, right?
I guess the NFL gave us their answer on Sunday: they don’t give a rat’s ass about any of that stuff. They seem content to allow the players to work in life-threateningly brutal conditions. The NFL doesn’t seem to care about it because it doesn’t affect them. And that, to me, sounds like the true baby stuff.
Grow the hell up, NFL. Get rid of the turf. Write the checks. It’s grass time.
Kinkead: What’s the argument for Tennessee having artificial turf anyway? It’s a big outdoor stadium in the American South. This isn’t Portland, or Fargo. Only 3 of the 16 SEC teams play on turf, and all three Florida NFL teams play on real grass.
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…) email: M.Schultz@sportradar.com