Belichick: Reliant Stadium Turf is "terrible" and source of Welker's Injury

[Keith]

Sheesh, somebody call the waaaahhhbumlance already.

Bill Belichick laid the blame for Wes Welker's blown ACL and MCL on the inconsistent turf at Reliant Stadium.

Speaking on WEEI this afternoon, the Patriots head coach said "stride to stride" it was woefully inconsistent. "You think it's going to grab and it gives, you think it's going to give and it grabs and that's where you get those non-contact injuries like what we saw Sunday," Belichick said, referring to the play that ended Welker's 2009 season.

"With the level of play we have in the NFL, a consistent level (of field quality) would be a No. 1 priority," Belichick said. "We talk about player safety and hits ... but to me, player safety starts with the surface we play on. When I walked out before the game, I was surprised to see how bad it was. You go from area to area and it's not consistent, that's not what you see (in other stadiums)" ...

"The quality of the field I thought was poor," said Belichick. "The turf down there's terrible. It's just inconsistent."

http://www.csnne.com/pages/landing_p...68&feedID=4023

First, if it sucked so bad, then why keep playing Randy Moss and Tom Brady on the field? Second, I don't recall the turf monster claiming that many torn ACLs here either. And finally, this comes from a man accused of purposefully not covering his home turf in a winter storm five years ago to slow down the prolific Colts offense.

“My job is not to pull weeds,” he said Wednesday with an innocent-looking smirk. “I have a lot of other things to do. Or rake the field and all of that. I’m sure that will all be taken care of.”

It's not the first time he called a field "terrible". He labeled his own home turf as such a few years ago.

``The field is in terrible condition," Belichick said yesterday. ``I don't think anybody in this organization is happy about it, or thinks it's in good condition. Everybody in this organization would like to see that field in better condition than what it's in. Everybody."

http://www.boston.com/sports/footbal...m_a_dust_bowl/

[HPF Bob]

I do think the "pallette" approach is a relative failure and the Texans should switch to this new artificial turf made of recycled tires (although I hate seeing players get off the ground covered in little black flakes) which is showing up in most of the domes and some outdoor fields.

I think the Ravens are going to pull the upset this week. I'm not basing that on how the Patriots looked in Houston when they rested a lot of key people but based on how whiney they've been. They don't seem focused.

[Mike]

I would not change anything. The first year or two, the field had issues with not enough trays of grass.

Chester Pitts this morning mentioned that the players wished they could play on a surface as good as ours every week.

The fake grass, even the new stuff is not preferred by most players. Did anyone see Ochocinco slip in warm ups on that crap? Players would rather plan on real grass.

Now, I wish they did not play the Texas Bowl a few days before an NFL game on the same surface. They had taken the endzone and midfield trays and replaced them.

Kubes even mentioned at times this year, the players preferred being outside in the "elements" rather than having to practice in the bubble, which has Fieldturf or Astroplay.

[popanot]

Originally Posted by Mike

Now, I wish they did not play the Texas Bowl a few days before an NFL game on the same surface. They had taken the endzone and midfield trays and replaced them.

I think that's the real key here. They need to find a better solution for when games are played so closely together and/or when they need to replace ad-hoc trays. In addition, and I'm not sure how or where they manage the trays, but the weather down here over the last month has been fairly sporadic so I could see where the consistency of the palettes from one location to another (say ones from an off-site location to those that might have remained in the stadium throughout the month) might be differerent. I have no idea what the solution is (maybe demo the dome and build an indoor sod garden? ), but I do not like the field-turf solution. If this was such a problem, then wouldn't more of our players be complaining or having serious injuries considering they play on that field more than anyone? Sure they're employed by the Texans, but you think they'd still complain or you'd hear more complaints from ex-players and/or opposing players.

[Mike]

The past few years, NFL players had voted (you could not vote for your own surface) that Reliant had an excellent surface to play on. I am not sure where I can find the old articles. That was not the case in the first few years when the field was bad. Chester even mentioned this in the morning.

I think we should call Jamie Roots and see if we can get some ITB members to play a game of flag football before they remove the grass.

There is another 1.5 fields of grass in an adjacent lot. I assume time constraints would not have allowed to take the entire field off, and the new one down in time for the game Sunday.

[TheMatrix31]

Man, I HATE Bill Belichick.

[WMH]

Originally Posted by Mike

The past few years, NFL players had voted (you could not vote for your own surface) that Reliant had an excellent surface to play on. I am not sure where I can find the old articles. That was not the case in the first few years when the field was bad. Chester even mentioned this in the morning.

Burge over on the examiner actually wrote about that this morning.
http://www.examiner.com/x-778-Housto...vey-of-players

In 2004, it was rated as 4th best.....and it has only improved from then.

Belicheat is full of shit, and likes to bitch and whine when he doesn't look like a genius. God complex......

And even though he is a piece of $hit, he is a pretty damn good coach

[papabear]

We've had problems with the field before in that It often looks like crap IMO. I think it is very possible that from one tray to another there could be differences in the feel of the turf. I know I've seen a couple of the soccer games there in particular where the field looked pretty bad. That being said I've never heard, or seen, and indication that the field contributes to injuries or is a hard surface to play on. The only possibility that I could see is if a player's foot got caught up in/tripped on a seam between two trays. They seem to do a pretty good job installing the surface to where it appears "seamless" for the most part though.

Either way, Welkers injury looked like it was just a case of him planting hard and his knee blowing. I don't think the surface would have mattered at all.

The new artificial turf is light years better than astro turf though, and I don't think it's any more dangerous than grass. I'm sure someone somewhere is studying it, and they are developing it further all the time. I'm sure at some point artificial will likely pass up natural grass from a performance and safety standpoint. Even then I think many people will still prefer a natural grass surface.

[NBT]

Belichick = sour grapes cause he didn't win. Pay him no mind.

[cland]

Belichek is trying to cover his own ass.

Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsB7kSfUW90 (Click HQ for better quality)

A. The turf looks great
B. Welker made a last second cut to avoid having Pollard remove his helmet for him.
C. Belichek is in a huge lose/lose situation with his decision there. He played his starters and got Welker a knee injury, and Brady broke the ring finger on his throwing hand, and his team lost the darned game. At the time it opened up the possibility of losing a playoff slot before the Bengal's laid down.

[Fonz the Boss]

I do agree that it looked different than usual. It looked as if it had rained or something. I do think that was the reason for the injury. Wes is one of my favorite NFL players and Ive seen him make those cuts on numerous occassions. Somebody did not do their job the previous day on that field after the Texas bowl.