Big Ten owes Gopher players an apology

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hello-world said:
Do you have a link? I totally believe that about the Bahamas bowl, for example. The Pinstripe bowl is a little too rich for me to believe that the the teams don't net positive.

I am reasonably sure that if you gave me a million dollars that I could figure out a way to get the Gopher football team and entourage to Tokyo without going over budget.
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The problem is that they WANT to spend all the money because why the fuck not? You could get them anywhere in the world for that cash. But if I said “here’s $100k for a group of 8 to get to and spend a week in Australia” you could find a way to spend every penny, ya know?

I’ll look for some links. Found them the other day but that was on my laptop and I’m ignoring that until Tuesday @ 8am
 

Lambeau Fields playing surface today didn't fair much better than Yankee Stadium's earlier this week. It looked nicer, but quite a bit of slipping by receivers out there.

Grass doesn't do well in northern stadiums in December/January despite technology advancements. Go figure.
 

Ope3 said:
Lambeau Fields playing surface today didn't fair much better than Yankee Stadium's earlier this week. It looked nicer, but quite a bit of slipping by receivers out there.

Grass doesn't do well in northern stadiums in December/January despite technology advancements. Go figure.
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Allianz grass played quite fine when the Women's national team played here vs Korea in late Oct 2021. Not exactly the same, but remember it being pretty cold.

I think it's the grow lights. Guessing NFL grass stadiums aren't using those. Keeping the soil warm and the grass well "fed" with light is the key thing.
 

cncmin said:
There were two significant injuries, neither caused by field conditions. If you want a perfect playing surface play in a dome on artificial turf. The game was interesting, in part because of how the slippery conditions affected the strategy. The B1G is a weather conference, where weather decides games often. Almost all B1G games are played outdoors rain snow or shine. Today was so very different because…? The day was a beautiful one for NYC in late December.

The belly aching around these parts about the field is nauseating. Again, no big injuries were caused by the field. You same jokers will bitch when a big injury happens on artificial turf in perfect weather. It’s fricking FOOTBALL. If anything, the field conditions slowed things down to lessen injuries that would have happened or been worse on grippier turf. Did any of you never play snow football? And why was that so fun? Well for one it hurt a lot less since the snow made the game slower.

Most knee injuries are due to excessive grip or high-force contact injuries. Did anyone tear up a knee today? You want injuries to lessen in football, reduce the speed of the contact. From that standpoint, the conditions today were great.

Enough whining already.
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bump, given tonight’s incident in Cincinnati. The faster the game the worse the injuries.
 

cncmin said:
bump, given tonight’s incident in Cincinnati. The faster the game the worse the injuries.
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I don't think field conditions had anything to do with the incident last night. It looked like a pretty routine tackle.
 


Gophers_4life said:
Even if there were no injuries, all you had to do was watch the receivers tip-toeing around and gingerly coming out of breaks, to avoid slipping, to realize that the horses__t surface degraded the quality of the game.

End of story.
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That is an opinion - the receivers needed to be better athletes during the bowl game than they did when they are practicing in a climate controlled turf field. I enjoy watching football more when the elements are not perfect.
 

I think it degrades the game. I don't mind them playing outdoors, but the game is very quickly going towards all major, marquee national matches being played indoors and on very solid surfaces, mostly turf but LV and Glendale have those rolling trays of grass. Though I'm not sure if teams other than the NFL team are ever allowed to play on them, so could be turf for those too in bowl games.
 

Gophers_4life said:
I think it degrades the game. I don't mind them playing outdoors, but the game is very quickly going towards all major, marquee national matches being played indoors and on very solid surfaces, mostly turf but LV and Glendale have those rolling trays of grass. Though I'm not sure if teams other than the NFL team are ever allowed to play on them, so could be turf for those too in bowl games.
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The Michigan/TCU Fiesta Bowl BCS Semi this past Saturday was played on grass. The field quality was brought into question.

thespun.com

Look: The Fiesta Bowl Playing Surface Is Getting Crushed

The first quarter of the Fiesta Bowl between Michigan and TCU has been action-packed. Unfortunately, the turf at State Farm Stadium doesn't seem fit enough to
thespun.com thespun.com
 

Ope3 said:
The Michigan/TCU Fiesta Bowl BCS Semi this past Saturday was played on grass. The field quality was brought into question.

thespun.com

Look: The Fiesta Bowl Playing Surface Is Getting Crushed

The first quarter of the Fiesta Bowl between Michigan and TCU has been action-packed. Unfortunately, the turf at State Farm Stadium doesn't seem fit enough to
thespun.com thespun.com
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TCU plays on grass at home. Maybe it was a small advantage. Who knows? The real difference was the QB throwing two pick sixes and fumbling at the goal line.
 



Didn’t know that (didn’t watch the game). That is unfortunate to see. Was that grass used recently for an NFL game?


Maybe there really is something about any grass in almost anywhere in the (lower 48 at least) when it gets this time of year just loses too much strength? Can’t keep from cleats tearing out patches of sod too easily?


The whole rub with turf is that it grips too well, unnaturally well, and that produces too much torque on the leg joints at times.


But a natural grass field that doesn’t grip well enough, and where patches even rip out, is equally bad or worse.
 

Gophers_4life said:
Didn’t know that (didn’t watch the game). That is unfortunate to see. Was that grass used recently for an NFL game?


Maybe there really is something about any grass in almost anywhere in the (lower 48 at least) when it gets this time of year just loses too much strength? Can’t keep from cleats tearing out patches of sod too easily?


The whole rub with turf is that it grips too well, unnaturally well, and that produces too much torque on the leg joints at times.


But a natural grass field that doesn’t grip well enough, and where patches even rip out, is equally bad or worse.
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My hunch is that it was newly installed sod as I have seen that done in previous years when they hosted BCS Playoffs, not 100% sure though. It "looked" perfect, just wasn't good footing.

Rose Bowl field looked as good as ever and held up, even though there was some light rain yesterday in Pasadena.
 


Ope3 said:
Lambeau Fields playing surface today didn't fair much better than Yankee Stadium's earlier this week. It looked nicer, but quite a bit of slipping by receivers out there.

Grass doesn't do well in northern stadiums in December/January despite technology advancements. Go figure.
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MaxyJR1 said:
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I believe Green Bay views its field as a competitive advantage this time of year. They know exactly what type of footwear to use and what routes and plays to run to take advantage of the conditions (you didn't see them slipping as much). Hell, they probably screw with the heated field temperatures and such to get it exactly the way they want it.
 


Gophers_4life said:
Agreed. Absolute trash.

NFL will never force GB or Buffalo to move indoors or put turf down.
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Buffalo has turf and they would need a significant sound structure for the amount of snow they can get. Chicago, Pittsburgh and Washington are also known for turf issues.
 

My bad on Buffalo having turf, makes sense too.

GB, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Washington should all be forced to put turf down OR invest in a grow light system and proper field warmers (if not already installed) so that the grass can stay alive and heal, all year long.
 

Gophers_4life said:
My bad on Buffalo having turf, makes sense too.

GB, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Washington should all be forced to put turf down OR invest in a grow light system and proper field warmers (if not already installed) so that the grass can stay alive and heal, all year long.
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GB has the field warming system....how or how much they use it...who knows. I think even the Bears hate their field. It's known to be hot garbage, the rumor....or scapegoat is that it's because it's maintained by the park board, not the bears themselves. One of the problems Pittsburg has is that's the home field for Pitt too.....It gets double torn up in October and November.
 

Bears will be moving to a new indoor stadium in some number of years, so that one will go away.
 

The playing field surface in Glendale for the Super Bowl did not look any better than it did at Yankee Stadium for the Gophers Bowl Game.

Gophers_4life said:
Bears will be moving to a new indoor stadium in some number of years, so that one will go away.
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Maybe not, if they elect to go with indoor sod like Glendale, Las Vegas and Houston (before they switched to turf).
 

Ope3 said:
The playing field surface in Glendale for the Super Bowl did not look any better than it did at Yankee Stadium for the Gophers Bowl Game.



Maybe not, if they elect to go with indoor sod like Glendale, Las Vegas and Houston (before they switched to turf).
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In the end the field is the same for both teams. Safety is the concern and sticky turf is worse than a slippery field.
 

You can't win in the playing surface debate. The NFL players this year demanded that all games be played on natural turf(despite a 10 year study that said there was no difference in injuries).

But as we have seen in games across all levels, there is just no way to insure that natural grass will always be consistent. It is impossible.
 

WoodburyTim said:
You can't win in the playing surface debate. The NFL players this year demanded that all games be played on natural turf(despite a 10 year study that said there was no difference in injuries).

But as we have seen in games across all levels, there is just no way to insure that natural grass will always be consistent. It is impossible.
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I'm sure even amongst the players there is disagreement. Slow guys, want natural and speedsters want artificial, I would guess.
 

Ope3 said:
The playing field surface in Glendale for the Super Bowl did not look any better than it did at Yankee Stadium for the Gophers Bowl Game.



Maybe not, if they elect to go with indoor sod like Glendale, Las Vegas and Houston (before they switched to turf).
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Glendale and Vegas it rolls outside the stadium for desert sunlight.

But with grow lights I suppose it can be grown fixed indoors, if cost is no object.
 

The announcers said the slippery field conditions at the Super Bowl were secondary to the amount of paint applied to the grass.
Football is an out-of-door game and weather and field conditions add to the drama.
Only sissies want to watch inside and play inside on a rug.
 

WoodburyTim said:
You can't win in the playing surface debate. The NFL players this year demanded that all games be played on natural turf(despite a 10 year study that said there was no difference in injuries).

But as we have seen in games across all levels, there is just no way to insure that natural grass will always be consistent. It is impossible.
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Yeah, I think the types of injuries are maybe somewhat different, but at the end of the day, both surfaces have pluses and minuses.
 

Gophers_4life said:
Glendale and Vegas it rolls outside the stadium for desert sunlight.

But with grow lights I suppose it can be grown fixed indoors, if cost is no object.
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I'm not sure how the slickness/condensation issues ever get solved for natural fields at indoor stadiums or outdoor cold weather fields with heating systems. I would doubt it matters if it's grown outside the stadium or with grow lights.

Perhaps Elon Musk could solve it.
 

What I would be interested in seeing is a study about the leg injuries that don't look bad, like CrAB's injury. I wonder if some of these injuries could actually be prevented with a change in training? I'm not saying it would prevent all injuries, but I just wonder how many are actually caused by the playing surface and how much are caused by a something systematic in an athletes training regiment?

Not saying I know anything on the topic, but just the various differing opinions I see makes me wonder if there's something else they could do during all the training they participate in to reduce risk.
 

I feel bad for the NFL turf guy who had a NYT article about him and then … turf looked bad.
 

Ope3 said:
I'm sure even amongst the players there is disagreement. Slow guys, want natural and speedsters want artificial, I would guess.
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I can't believe that spread and speed teams would want to return to muddy winter fields for playoff games.
 

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